Walmart Nears Trillion-Dollar Valuation Through AI-Powered Commerce Shift
Walmart's market capitalization surged to $852 billion following its OpenAI partnership, positioning the retail giant as an unlikely tech contender. The 5% single-day stock jump - its largest since April - reflects investor enthusiasm for the ChatGPT-powered 'agentic commerce' system enabling direct purchases through conversational AI.
Mizuho analyst David Bellinger notes Walmart's first-mover advantage in retail AI integration, contrasting with competitors' defensive stance against web crawlers. The Instant Checkout feature represents a paradigm shift from reactive e-commerce to predictive, AI-driven transactions.