Walmart's stock price hits an all-time high! Establishes partnership with OpenAI

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Walmart (WMT.US) saw its stock rise nearly 5% on Tuesday, closing at a historic high of $107.21, as the company became the latest to announce a partnership with OpenAI. Walmart stated that customers will be able to shop and purchase items directly using the "instant checkout" feature through the ChatGPT platform. Additionally, customers can also interact with ChatGPT in a conversational manner via the search bar on Walmart's main website and the Sam's Club website. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a press release, "For years, the e-commerce shopping experience has primarily consisted of a search bar and a long list of product results. All of that is about to change. In the future, there will be a native AI shopping experience that is multimedia, personalized, and context-aware." OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman expressed that the AI startup is "very excited" about collaborating with Walmart and hopes to "make everyday shopping a little easier." Walmart did not disclose the amount of the deal, but the partnership is part of the company's broader AI strategy. Doug McMillon stated that the company is rapidly moving towards "a more enjoyable and convenient future" through its AI shopping assistant "Sparky" and collaborations like this one. Walmart is also continuously expanding its e-commerce and delivery business. The e-commerce business of Walmart in the U.S. further improved its profitability in the second quarter, having already turned a profit in the first quarter. Recently, OpenAI has been frequently securing partnership deals. The startup has established collaborations with AI infrastructure providers and chip manufacturers, including AMD (AMD.US) and Broadcom (AVGO.US). NVIDIA (NVDA.US) also announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI at the end of September. OpenAI's partners are not limited to chip manufacturers. The company is also piloting application and e-commerce platform integration projects with businesses including Etsy (ETSY.US) and Shopify (SHOP.US). UBS analyst Michael Lasser wrote in a client report that given the expanding user base of ChatGPT, Walmart's collaboration with OpenAI could "create significant opportunities." As of September, ChatGPT's weekly active users had reached 700 million. Michael Lasser noted that Walmart is once again "leading the way in adopting new technologies to better reflect changing consumer trends." He added, "ChatGPT is increasingly being used for product discovery. Therefore, this collaboration is expected to bring incremental growth to Walmart and differentiate it from other retailers." Data shows that Walmart's stock price has risen over 18% this year. In contrast, Amazon (AMZN.US) and Target (TGT.US) have seen their stock prices decline by approximately 1% and 34%, respectively, this year