Walmart’s Autonomous Forklifts Could Cost $200 Million

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Walmart looks like it is sparing no expense to automate its warehouse operations.

The retail giant has plans to possibly spend as much as $200 million on self-driving forklifts that move pallets of goods within its distribution centers, according to a report from Reuters.

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Walmart would not comment on the report, but referred to the company’s April announcement that it rolled out 19 autonomous forklifts from Fox Robotics across four of its high-tech distribution centers. At the time, the retailer said it had plans to expand the pilot pending an evaluation of its benefits.

Reuters said Walmart has intended to buy “possibly hundreds” of these autonomous forklifts from Fox Robotics in the future, with the Bentonville behemoth reportedly already having invested $25 million in the Austin-based startup.

Fox Robotics entered into a multiyear program agreement with Walmart after a 16-month proof of concept. The Reuters report indicated that Walmart could stop the rollout at any time, and that it could occur in stages over several years, hinging on the retailer’s satisfaction with the forklifts.

Automation could provide a massive windfall for Walmart as it scales the technology across its logistics operation. Walmart has already opened four “next-gen” distribution centers in Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Pennsylvania to better take on the sprawling network put together by Amazon, and expects a fifth iteration of these automated warehouses to open in Stockton, Calif. by 2026.

The completion of said facilities is designed to enable next- and two-day shipping on “millions of items” including third-party Marketplace products for three-quarters of U.S. households, Walmart contends. The fulfillment centers are built to double the storage capacity of a traditional Walmart warehouse, and also double the number of customer orders able to be fulfilled in a day.

Walmart also has been attempting to cut down delivery times as part of its fulfillment upgrades. The company indicated in a May earnings call that its U.S. division delivered 4.4 billion items either same-day or next-day over the past 12 months, with about 20 percent of those delivered in under three hours.

Analysts from Jefferies recently estimated the company could add $20 billion to its profit before interest and taxes by fiscal 2029, largely in part to its efforts in automation and artificial intelligence.


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