By Manya Saini, Juveria Tabassum and Anirban Sen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Nasdaq’s latest get is about as “old economy” as it gets – consumer giant Walmart.
The retail giant said on Thursday it was shifting its longtime listing on the New York Stock Exchange to its main rival — even giving a passing nod to artificial intelligence as one of the reasons for aligning itself with the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
The move by Walmart, which has a market value of about $852 billion, marks the biggest-ever exchange transfer on record and a coup for Nasdaq over its long-time crosstown rival. Walmart is the NYSE’s fourth largest listing by market capitalization, according to data from LSEG.
For years, the U.S. exchanges have fought for prominence, with Nasdaq primarily the home of the tech sector while the NYSE traditionally anchored the country’s biggest industrial and financial names. The back-and-forth was at its most heated in the late 1990s during the dot-com frenzy.
The retailer’s shift is a coup for Nasdaq, and while it cuts against the tech/non-tech divide, Walmart said the move underscores its “technology-forward approach” and its push to redefine industries. The stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Dec. 9.
“Walmart is setting a new standard for omnichannel retail by integrating automation and AI,” Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John Rainey said.
Nasdaq beat the NYSE in stock market listings during the first half of 2025, buoyed by blockbuster initial public offerings of big names such as CoreWeave and Chime.
Companies typically change listing venues when they see better alignment with an exchange’s investor base, technology and services, or when they want to cut costs tied to listing and compliance.
“It’s incredible to think that they’ll likely join the NASDAQ 100. Costco is a member and now Walmart will join that club,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.
“It attracts a different type of investor as most people who want to bet on tech will get a lot of consumer staples with it now.”
Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
NOTABLE SWITCHES INCLUDE SHOPIFY, KIMBERLY-CLARK
Nearly every major U.S. company now has an AI strategy and is investing in the technology, blurring the line over what counts as a tech firm.
The New York Stock Exchange’s marquee listings include Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan, while Nasdaq is home to technology behemoths Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia.
This year, NYSE has been buoyed by transfers from several companies including financial services firm Virtu, CSW Industrials, and building products distributor QXO.
Other notable switches to the Nasdaq in 2025 include e-commerce platform Shopify, consumer goods maker Kimberly-Clark and Thomson Reuters, the parent of Reuters News.
Some companies that transferred from NYSE to Nasdaq this year cited the attractiveness of the Nasdaq-100 index – which includes 100 of the most valuable non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq, including Nvidia and Apple – as being a key driver for their decision to switch.
The Nasdaq 100 has jumped about 19.6% this year, compared to the S&P 500, which has climbed about 14.8% year-to-date.
In September 2024, Nasdaq said 500 listings had made the switch from NYSE over nearly two decades, representing $2.7 trillion in market value.
(Reporting by Manya Saini and Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru and Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Nick Zieminski)
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