Walmart moves to Nasdaq for listing; is the retail giant transforming into a technology company?

U.S. retail giant Walmart will move its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq this Tuesday, marking the largest relocation of a listing venue in U.S. stock market history and attracting widespread attention from global markets.

Walmart has passed its period of rapid growth and boasts relatively stable performance, making it a preferred target for established investors. Nasdaq, on the other hand, is characterized by attracting rapidly growing innovative companies. The listing of such a massive retail behemoth on Nasdaq feels somewhat incongruous. Some analysts suggest that Walmart's move, with a market capitalization of $853.1 billion, may represent a further shift in the narrative of traditional industries towards high technology.

Walmart CFO John David Rainey previously stated that Walmart is setting a new standard for omnichannel retail by integrating automation and artificial intelligence to create a smarter, faster, and more connected experience for customers.

Simply put, Walmart is beginning to market itself as a new company that combines traditional retail with AI automation. This choice is actually quite clever. On the one hand, it enhances Walmart's technological attributes, potentially boosting the company's valuation; on the other hand, it's essentially a targeted marketing strategy, aligning its business with another, more technologically advanced retail giant, Amazon. Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe also pointed out that switching to a Nasdaq listing would give Walmart the opportunity to be included in the Nasdaq 100 index, which is dominated by technology stocks, and this would attract more investment from passive funds.