Here’s Walmart’s $1 trillion secret

Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor

Sun, February 22, 2026 at 10:30 PM GMT+9 4 min read

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I get to chat with a ton of fascinating people each week here at Yahoo Finance.

It’s one of the perks of the gig.

Every day I leave our New York City headquarters smarter than the day before. Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bill and Melinda Gates, took me inside her new startup, Phia. It’s an AI-powered shopping assistant that, frankly, I need to start using to cut down my clothing shopping time.

Nextdoor (NXDR) founder Nirav Tolia challenged me about why I didn’t like his quarter during Opening Bid. I stated my case because, hey, of course I read earnings releases and do my old-school research. I think Nirav appreciated me putting in the work.

Figma (FIG) CFO Praveer Melwani concisely shared why his company will survive the AI era. I think what he said made sense, and I would say the company has a chance based on its Q4 results.

And Bausch & Lomb (BLCO) CEO Brent Saunders said he has a breakthrough contact lens innovation on the way. I’ve been wearing contacts since age 15, so this caught my attention. I also found it interesting that Brent is now tying employee bonuses to AI literacy.

Staying on healthcare, Joshua Meier, founder of privately held Chai Discovery, told me how his AI platform will upend drug discovery.

Amid all this, I recorded three Opening Bid Unfiltered podcasts, which will be released soon. I left all three reminded of how AI will probably clean out the headquarters of most corporate offices by 2030. That’s not me being an alarmist — it could be the blunt truth. Some companies you’ve never heard of are doing major work in AI.

Tune in to Monday’s podcast episode with Alex Faherty, co-founder of red-hot retailer Faherty. I didn’t ask Faherty how he’s using AI, but keep an eye on this company — I believe it will go public in the not-too-distant future or be acquired by a well-known retailer. My bet is on the former.

But the chat of the week for me comes back to mighty retailer Walmart (WMT) and CFO John David Rainey (video above), who I’ve known since his days as PayPal’s (PYPL) CFO.

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Several areas stood out to me from Walmart’s earnings report. But one that may have been overlooked was the impact technology is having on the retailer.

The company included a slide in its earnings presentation about robots in a factory. I’ve covered Walmart for 20 years, and the company doing that was no mistake. This was the first time Walmart shouted out now being listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC). Execs talked about tech on the earnings call. They touted faster delivery times at Walmart — same-day delivery has pretty much become the norm for its orders.

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The retail giant allocated $26 billion to capital expenditures in 2025, up about $3 billion year over year. A lot of that capital went to tech for fulfillment and new internal AI capabilities.

Expect more aggressive investment in tech this year from Walmart.

“What we’ve done is basically use our 5,000 stores in the US as distribution nodes for our customers, and so we’re able to fulfill from many of these stores to get the the items that they want, in many cases to them in less than 30 minutes … And what we recognize is that when you move from a two-day promise to a one day promise, you see an appreciable increase in conversion,” Rainey explained.

The company checked a lot of boxes for the bulls with its quarter. Operating profits grew faster than sales at all of Walmart’s business segments. E-commerce sales rose by double-digit percentages at Walmart US and Sam’s Club.

And the retail behemoth uncorked a new $30 billion stock buyback plan.

It’s the tech investments that are the most intriguing, as they are the lifeblood of the company’s strong financial outcomes. It’s also why Walmart’s market cap staying above $1 trillion is as bankable as a package from the retailer arriving the same day.

Brian Sozzi_ is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com._

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