Walmart has announced plans to reduce its corporate technology headcount by around 1,000 people effective immediately. The Wall Street Journal first reported the cuts, and Walmart confirmed the action with Talk Business & Politics.
The retailer said conversations with impacted employees occurred May 12. The memo announcing the technology restructure sent by Suresh Kumar, global chief technology officer, and Daniel Danker, executive vice president of AI acceleration and product design, was made available.
Walmart said it is combining its global technology and product design divisions and those of Sam’s Clubs and international markets into a single shared platform.
“This has enabled us to create once and scale globally, accelerate innovation, and reduce duplication,” the memo noted. “We’ve launched global capabilities like Marketplace across different markets more quickly and with greater impact. We’ve also seen places where we can operate more efficiently. In some cases, we’ve had different teams working on similar problems.”
The new structure will simplify how the work is organized, make ownership clearer, and better align roles to the work and skills needed going forward, the retailer noted. The memo said the realignment will mean promotions for some and job losses for others. Walmart also said people impacted by the layoffs have the opportunity to apply for open tech positions within the company. Those who qualify will also receive severance and relocation allowances if applicable. Bentonville and California are where the majority of the technology teams are located.
“Ultimately, we’re designing a team that’s set up to move faster, scale what works, and deliver better experiences for customers and members everywhere,” according to the memo. “Today is an important step in continuing to evolve how we build and operate for the future.”
Walmart did not attribute any of the job cuts to artificial intelligence (AI) and continues to stress that technology enables its people to move faster and do more to serve customers with low prices at scale and with speed.
The job losses follow a similar restructuring in May 2025 which eliminated around 1,500 corporate jobs in Bentonville, primarily in technology, e-commerce fulfillment, and the company’s advertising platform.
The announcement also hits before the company’s May 21 first-quarter earnings report. Shares of Walmart (Nasdaq: WMT) were trading at $130.45, up 10 cents on the day. Over the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged from $91.89 to $134.69. The stock price is up 17% year-to-date.