Data story · SAM.gov award notices · Jan 2025 – Oct 2026

60,375 awards in the United States went to 9,169 suppliers from January 2025 to October 2026. Of 9,169 winning suppliers, 66% won once. Their awards are 10% of the total. The 91 suppliers with the most awards, the top 1%, won 66% of them.

Here the stated value is less concentrated than the awards: 45% against 66% for the top 1%. ART-1 found the opposite in each of 34 countries. Federal Acquisition Service is the largest buyer: 39,083 awards, 65% of the total.

Awards: 60,375; Contract awards from Jan 2025 – Oct 2026, each counted once.
Winning suppliers: 9,169; Suppliers with one or more awards, counted by normalised name.
Won one award: 66%; Share of winning suppliers with exactly one award.
Top 1% of suppliers: 66%; Share of awards won by the 91 suppliers with the most awards.
Gini coefficient: 0.82; Inequality of awards across suppliers: 0 = each wins the same number, 1 = one supplier wins all.
Stated value (USD): USD 36.4 billion; From the 95% of awards that state an amount, capped at the 99.9th percentile.
Top 1% by stated value: 45%; Share of stated value won by the top 1% of suppliers by value.

We hold 22 months of data for the United States, so the window is 22 months, not 24. Do not compare these shares with 24-month windows.

How the awards spread across suppliers

Share of suppliers, awards and stated value by the number of awards each supplier won: 1, 2–5, 6–20, 21–100, 101 or more. The United States, January 2025 to October 2026.

Suppliers in order from the fewest awards to the most (x), against their total share of awards (y). The dashed line is an equal share for each supplier. The lower the curve, the more the awards gather at the top. Gini 0.82; by stated value 0.90.

Hollow dots: the share of awards held by the top 1% and the top 10% of suppliers by number of awards. Solid dots: the share of stated value held by the top 1% and the top 10% by stated value. The two groups can hold different suppliers. 95% of the awards state an amount. Values in USD, capped at the 99.9th percentile.

The United States ranks 3rd of 51 countries for the Gini coefficient and 1st for the top 1% share. 1st is the most concentrated.

Who wins the most awards

Top 10 suppliers by number of awards, January 2025 to October 2026.
#	Supplier	Awards	Share of awards	Stated value (USD)	Share of value
1	NATIONAL INDUSTRIES FOR THE BLIND	6,239	10%	3.32 million	under 1%
2	W.W. GRAINGER, INC.	5,668	9%	17.9 million	under 1%
3	NOBLE SUPPLY & LOGISTICS, LLC	3,093	5%	935,412	under 1%
4	MONO MACHINES LLC	2,850	5%	1.31 million	under 1%
5	WRIGHT TOOL COMPANY, LLC	1,911	3%	1.51 million	under 1%
6	FCA US LLC	1,610	3%	73.7 million	under 1%
7	LC INDUSTRIES INC	1,232	2%	6.31 million	under 1%
8	DOCUMENT IMAGING DIMENSIONS INC.	1,226	2%	638,230	under 1%
9	MSC INDUSTRIAL DIRECT CO., INC.	1,178	2%	2.88 million	under 1%
10	PREMIER & COMPANIES, INC.	1,083	2%	438,936	under 1%

Who buys the most

Top 10 buyers by number of awards, January 2025 to October 2026.
#	Buyer	Awards	Share of awards	Stated value (USD)	Share of value
1	Federal Acquisition Service	39,083	65%	4.57 billion	13%
2	Department of Veterans Affairs	5,389	9%	7.42 billion	20%
3	Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons	3,346	6%	788 million	2%
4	Forest Service	1,667	3%	1.03 billion	3%
5	Department of State	1,265	2%	2.13 billion	6%
6	Departmental Offices	1,168	2%	1.85 billion	5%
7	Public Buildings Service	1,021	2%	1.18 billion	3%
8	Offices, Boards and Divisions	633	1%	692 million	2%
9	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	493	under 1%	1.51 billion	4%
10	U.S. Marshals Service	462	under 1%	939 million	3%

Stated value: the amount in each award notice, split between joint winners and capped at the 99.9th percentile.

Sectors

The award records for the United States have no CPV code, so this story has no sector table.

CPV sector: the sector of the award's CPV code, the EU classification of what a contract buys. Our keyword sector labels elsewhere on the site can give other counts.

How we counted

SAM.gov award notices for the United States. One record is one contract award: a buyer, a supplier, a date and, where the source gives it, an amount.
January 2025 to October 2026. We hold 22 months of data for the United States, so the window has 22 months, not 24.
The records for the United States have no CPV code, so this story shows no sector numbers. We do not use our keyword sector labels: a hand check found too many wrong labels for most sectors.
We count each award once: one notice, one amount, one date. We leave out awards with no supplier name, placeholder names such as "persona natural", names that are only a legal form, and names that appear on thousands of unrelated awards.
We count suppliers by normalised name. A firm under two spellings counts as two suppliers, so the "won one award" share is an upper bound.
Stated value is the amount in the award notice, in USD. It is often the ceiling of a framework agreement, and the money paid can be lower. When several winners share one notice and one amount, we split the amount. We cap each award at the 99.9th percentile of the awards in the United States. 95% of the awards state an amount, USD 36.4 billion in total.
These numbers show how the awards spread across suppliers. They do not show why.

The method is the method of our study of 39 countries: who wins government contracts. Other countries: who wins, country by country. The sector pages show the same numbers for each country and sector with enough data.

Snapshot 2 November 2026. Awards from January 2025 to October 2026 (22 months of data). The numbers change when we add new awards.