Investors say that Walmart ‘s transfer of its common stock listing to Nasdaq is emblematic of its intention to be viewed as a tech-enabled, e-commerce company rather than a traditional discount retailer. On Tuesday, Walmart transferred its primary listing to the technology-heavy Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange, where it has traded since 1972 — making it the largest company to ever make the move. The Bentonvile, Arkansas-behemoth will keep the same “WMT” trading symbol it’s had for the past 50 years. In an interview with CNBC’s ” Squawk Box ” on Tuesday morning, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon cited the company’s progress with technology as the main contributing factor for its decision to shift to Nasdaq. “Walmart’s changed a lot, and we’re trying to make sure everybody knows it,” said McMillon, who is set to retire in January . Walmart was founded on the principle of charging low prices — creating a low-margin, high-volume business — but lately the $910-billion powerhouse has made strategic moves to transform its business in a more AI-enabled direction. Investors such as Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, told CNBC that Walmart’s move into artificial intelligence is no small task and dictates its focus going forward . ‘A very intentional move’ “If they want to be considered more of an AI, tech-based company, then the optics of moving to that stock exchange I think more aligns them with their forward-looking ecosystem. It’s obviously a very intentional move,” Kevin Simpson, founder and CEO of Capital Wealth Planning, said in a call with CNBC. “This isn’t the Walmart from 10, 20, 30 years ago. This is a Walmart that is looking into the future.” Tengler, Simpson and other investors who spoke to CNBC Pro applauded Walmart’s recent efforts to integrate AI systems to boost productivity in its business. These steps have improved inventory automation and helped it to predict consumer demand, manage logistics and reduce theft. Even small steps translate into massive savings when applied to the more than 10,000 stores Walmart operates worldwide, they said. “Collecting data in terms of what customer patterns have been over the last few years allows them to better predict when certain things are going to sell better,” Markus Hansen, portfolio manager at Vontobel, said in an interview. Walmart’s use of new technology extends beyond the back of the store, Hansen said, applauding the retailer’s efforts to raise the in-store shopping experience by introducing “smart” shopping carts and digital ink displays that can change item pricing from a central location. Simpson said Walmart’s growing advertising business is at the center of its AI narrative. He described the business as no longer an “afterthought,” but a core proof point behind its new “people-led, tech-powered” story. While the ad business is still small in comparison to the amount of annual sales Walmart generates, it is both high margin and growing many times faster than the core business, Simpson said. “The strategic significance is that advertising sits right at the center of Walmart’s data, AI, and automation push: they’re using first-party shopper data and AI tools to target and measure campaigns across their app, website, in-store screens, and now connected TV via Vizio — powering a fast-expanding retail-media platform,” he said via email to CNBC. Walmart’s McMillon highlighted Sparky, the company’s AI shopping assistant, as another change the retailer has made to offer a more tech-enabled front-end user experience. This revamped platform is more personalized, understands shopping context and could “look more like TikTok” if a user is browsing for fun, he said. A top stock pick for 2026 Heading into 2026, Walmart is one of Tengler’s top six stock ideas for the new year and a position she’d be willing to hold for the next three to five years. “If you think about old economy companies that have pivoted to all the new technology, Walmart is, in fact, the poster child. They embrace digitization, cloud computing, robotics and AI in their advertising business as well as in their e-commerce business,” the money manager said. As of Monday’s close, shares of Walmart had risen 26% so far this year versus the S & P 500 ‘s 16% gain over the same period. WMT .SPX YTD mountain WMT YTD chart Taking aim at Amazon One reason Walmart has already been so successful in e-commerce is because it has followed an established playbook set by Amazon , especially in raising its revenue-to-employee ratio — a metric for productivity, said Eric Clark, portfolio manager at Accuvest Global Advisors. “Walmart essentially has adopted a lot of the things that Amazon has done,” he told CNBC. “Where they have an edge over Amazon is [that] they serve the part of the economy that’s struggling more than Amazon.” Walmart’s “everyday low price” strategy traditionally served more low-income customers, making it a defensive play and a beneficiary in tough times when bargains are in more demand. But the company has also successfully expanded its customer base to higher income consumers in recent years, making it more competitive against Amazon. Walmart+, its membership service , includes free delivery of online orders and other perks. It is one factor that has driven this shift and has helped create an ecosystem across the company’s offerings and its partnerships with others, investors said. While Amazon is the undisputed leader in e-commerce, weaker retailers that haven’t made such large investments e-commerce or logistics automation — such as Target — are at risk of ceding share to Walmart, according to Tengler. Simpson said he believes Walmart is taking some business from Amazon because of Walmart’s ability to do same-day delivery at scale. Higher valuation Walmart’s move to the Nasdaq also serves another crucial purpose — it may help justify a higher valuation that would be more in line with that of a hybrid retail/tech company, Simpson said. “If there’s any argument against the bull case on Walmart at the moment, it’s that you can point to it and say it carries a high multiple,” Simpson said in an interview. “But I think it’s their deliberate intent to move there [toward tech], so that it justifies a higher multiple because they’re wanting to separate themselves from a stodgy, traditional, boring retailer to a more progressive, AI-led, e-commerce company.”
Walmart move to Nasdaq part of plan to build an AI, e-commerce powerhouse, investors say
