Robotics
Walmart Commits Roughly $6 Billion Under Expanded Symbotic Agreement
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Symbotic Inc. (SYM ) and Walmart Inc. (WMT ) announced on October 29, 2026, an expanded commercial agreement that will bring further automation capabilities to 25 U.S. regional distribution centers, with an initial commitment of approximately $6 billion in spend covering work over several years across multiple locations.
Under the expanded agreement, Symbotic will bring additional capabilities to Walmart’s U.S. distribution network, according to Symbotic’s announcement. The agreement also supports additional opportunities across Walmart’s global supply chain network, and the companies said it supports the continued growth of Walmart’s supply chain capabilities globally, helping deliver greater value for customers in markets around the world.
“Our partnership with Walmart started with a single product over a decade ago, and now we offer a full end-to-end solution to help power Walmart’s growth across its supply chain for years to come,” said Rick Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Symbotic. “This expanded agreement reflects the strength of that collaboration – a partnership defined by trust and shared ambition.”
Rob Montgomery, Executive Vice President for Walmart U.S. Supply Chain Operations, said Walmart is focused on bringing more items to more customers and members faster, whether they shop in stores, at the curbside or at home. “Our work with Symbotic over the years, including this expanded agreement, helps us improve service, grow capacity, simplify work for our associates and lower costs,” he said.
Through its expanded work with Symbotic, Walmart plans to bring additional automation capabilities to its regional distribution center network, supporting e-commerce upstream inventory management, increasing storage capacity and improving how products move through the supply chain. Walmart said these capabilities will help it offer customers a broader assortment, improve speed and provide more reliable replenishment across its network.
Automation Platform
Symbotic’s integrated solution includes a BreakPack each-picking solution and the SymMicro micro-fulfillment solution for e-commerce. The company said all of its solutions are underpinned by proprietary software that harnesses artificial intelligence to orchestrate and optimize the movement of millions of cases every day. Symbotic, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, describes itself as a leader in AI-enabled robotics technology for the supply chain.
Prior Agreements
Symbotic has worked with Walmart on supply chain automation since 2017, according to Symbotic’s January 2025 announcement.
On May 23, 2022, the companies announced an expanded commercial agreement to implement Symbotic’s robotics and software automation platform in all 42 of Walmart’s regional distribution centers over the coming years, according to the companies’ 2022 announcement. That agreement expanded Walmart’s prior commitment to deploy Symbotic systems in 25 regional distribution centers, and the retrofitting process across all 42 centers was expected to be completed over the following eight-plus years.
The 2022 announcement said the platform builds palletized loads of department-sorted inventory, enabling Walmart to get products onto shelves at its more than 4,700 stores more quickly. Walmart had already begun embedding Symbotic’s technology in select regional distribution centers at the time.
On January 16, 2025, Symbotic announced it had agreed to acquire Walmart’s Advanced Systems and Robotics business. Total consideration was $200 million in cash at closing, subject to customary adjustments, plus up to $350 million in additional contingent consideration in future periods dependent on the quantity of Accelerated Pickup and Delivery systems ordered.
Under related agreements announced that day, Walmart committed to a $520 million development program payment to Symbotic, including $230 million at closing, to enhance current online pickup and delivery fulfillment systems and to design new systems. If performance criteria are achieved, Walmart committed to purchasing and deploying systems for 400 Accelerated Pickup and Delivery centers at stores over a multi-year period, with an option to add additional centers in the coming years.
Symbotic said the transaction and new agreements could increase its future backlog by more than $5 billion and added a micro-fulfillment solution that expanded its addressable market by more than $300 billion in the United States alone. The January 2025 announcement also noted that approximately 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of Walmart’s more than 4,600 stores. Citi served as financial advisor to Symbotic, and the acquisition was anticipated to close in Symbotic’s fiscal second quarter of 2025.
