Walmart announced on November 5, 2026, that it will add 300 Zipline drone delivery sites across the United States under a new multi-year agreement1,3. The expansion builds on what Walmart calls the largest drone delivery program in the country, which has completed more than 2 million deliveries since the partnership with San Francisco-based Zipline began in 2021.
Scale of the buildout
Zipline and Walmart currently operate 21 sites in Texas and Arkansas. The 300 additional sites would extend the service nationwide, though Walmart has not provided a timetable for the rollout or a financial target for the agreement.
Zipline has completed more than 1 million deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area so far this year.
Eligible customers can order tens of thousands of items through the Walmart app or Walmart.com, with delivery in as fast as 30 minutes where the service is available. Customers can receive orders in a front yard, backyard, or driveway, and eligible addresses can also place orders through the Zipline app.
"Walmart's stores put us close to the communities we serve. With Zipline, we can build on that proximity and bring this fast delivery option to even more customers across the country," said Greg Cathey, senior vice president of e-commerce fulfillment transformation.
Zipline's funding and Walmart's automation push
Zipline said on November 5 that it has raised $1.5 billion to expand its U.S. manufacturing operations and increase hiring, with funding led by Paradigm, WCM Investment Management, and Layer Global that values the company at $21.5 billion[1]. ANALYSIS The nearly threefold jump from the $7.6 billion valuation Zipline carried earlier this year reflects the pace at which the company has scaled its commercial operations.
Walmart said 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores, a footprint that gives the retailer a potential distribution base for rapid fill-in purchases and extends the role of stores in its digital fulfillment network.
The drone expansion is the second major autonomous-systems commitment Walmart has disclosed in recent weeks. On October 29, Walmart committed an additional $6 billion over several years to deploy Symbotic's AI-enabled supply-chain automation technology across 25 U.S. regional distribution centers[3].
ANALYSIS Taken together, the Zipline site expansion and the Symbotic warehouse commitment position Walmart to automate both ends of its fulfillment chain: warehouse picking and last-mile delivery.