Walmart Inc.’s strategic investment, which accompanied Symbotic Inc.’s acquisition of Walmart’s robotics business, will grow by $6 billion, the companies announced on Oct. 29.

The new expansion of their commercial agreement will mean that new deployments of Symbotic’s automation technology appear at 25 of Walmart’s U.S. regional distribution centers, according to Symbotic. Added capabilities that Symbotic expects to roll out for Walmart’s global operations include means to support ecommerce upstream inventory management, increasing storage capacity and improving flow of products through the supply chain.

Walmart ranks No. 2 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database, which tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.

Walmart is also No. 37 in Digital Commerce 360 and ReFiBuy’s AI Commerce Rankings. That set of rankings is available in the Top 1000 Pro with AI Database.

Why Walmart is investing more in Symbotic’s technology

“At Walmart, we’re focused on bringing more items to more customers and members, faster than ever,” said Rob Montgomery, executive vice president for Walmart U.S. supply chain operations. “Our investments in the physical and digital supply chain help us serve them however they choose to shop, whether in stores, at the curbside or at home.”

After more than a decade of working together and ultimately bringing Symbotic into Walmart fulfillment centers, the retail giant now sees success to build upon. That buildout will directly impact fulfillment for Walmart’s online sales.

“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,” Montgomery stated.

What Symbotic does for Walmart

Symbotic provides solutions including BreakPack for handling small orders and mixed inventory, as well as SymMicro for micro-fulfillment with ecommerce orders. It also maintains software for operating those systems.

“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.”

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated Oct. 29, Symbotic outlines that Walmart would also work with the technology provider on a development program, with Walmart committing $125 million “to fund the research and development of next-generation racking technology and related picking, process flow and inventory management capabilities.”

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