Walmart's Automation Push Hits Cost and Complexity Snags Across 200 U.S. Facilities

Walmart's effort to automate roughly 200 U.S. supply-chain facilities is running into persistent technical and financial obstacles, The Wall Street Journal reported, with early tests failing outright and others proving too costly to scale. Rob Montgomery, head of supply-chain operations for Walmart U.S., said the company is "kind of in this peak complexity," citing the challenge of re-engineering warehouses without taking them offline. Walmart holds a 12.6% stake in Symbotic, its primary automation partner for nonperishable goods; robot breakdowns from causes such as dust buildup have created cascading stoppages. Power consumption at automated grocery warehouses can exceed $800,000 monthly at peak, up from about $250,000 under mostly manual operations. Walmart has invested nearly $1 billion in in-store automation since 2016, including a $400 million acquisition of Alert Innovation in 2023 that it later sold to Symbotic for $200 million at a loss. Symbotic does not expect a workable in-store model until 2028. Walmart expects supply-chain automation spending to peak this year and next.