Company: COST
Filing Date: 2025-12-04
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000909832-25-000159
Chunk: 2

Company: COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP /NEW
Filing Date: 2025-12-04
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 2
---
 Greenwashing Risk Audit        |     |   31 |
| Other Matters                                                             |     |   33 |
| Shareholder Proposals for the 2027 Annual Meeting                         |     |   33 |
| Annual Report to Shareholders and Form 10-K                               |     |   34 |
| General Information                                                       |     |   34 |
| Appendix A: Non-GAAP Financial Measures                                   |     |   35 |

### PROXY STATEMENT

### FOR ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS TO BE HELD

#### January 15, 2026

### SOLICITATION AND REVOCATION OF PROXY
Proxies in the form furnished are solicited by the Board of Directors of the Company to be voted at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on January 15, 2026, or any adjournments (the “Annual Meeting”). The individuals named as proxy are Hamilton E. James and Ron M. Vachris. A Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials was first sent to shareholders and the accompanying notice of meeting, this Proxy Statement and the form of proxy are first being made available to shareholders on or about December 4, 2025.

All shares represented by proxies received will be voted in accordance with instructions contained in the proxies. The Board of Directors unanimously recommends a vote:

1. FOR the ten nominees for director named in this Proxy Statement;

2. FOR the ratification of the selection of the Company’s independent auditors;

3. FOR the approval, on an advisory basis, of the compensation of the Company’s named executive officers for fiscal 2025 as disclosed in these materials; and

4. AGAINST the shareholder proposal.

In the absence of voting instructions to the contrary, shares represented by validly executed proxies will be voted in accordance with the foregoing recommendations. A shareholder giving a proxy has the power to revoke it any time before it is voted by providing written notice to the Secretary of the Company, by delivering a later-dated proxy, or by voting virtually at the Annual Meeting.

Only shareholders of record at the close of business on November 7, 2025 (the "Record Date") will be entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. At the close of business on the Record Date, there were 443,957,682 shares of common stock outstanding, which represent all of the voting securities of the Company. Each share of common stock is entitled to one vote. Shareholders do not have cumulative voting rights in the election of