Walmart is shuttering its downtown Austin tech office. Here's what we know

The lobby at Walmart Technology in downtown Austin on Wednesday February 7, 2018. 
Jay Janner/American-Statesman

Austin American-Statesman
Kara Carlson - Austin American-Statesman
February 14, 2023

Walmart is joining a wave of tech employers making cuts in Austin, as the retail giant shuts down its Central Texas technology office.

The closure comes as the wider tech industry undergoes layoffs and downsizes real estate including in Austin. Walmart is also closing tech offices in Portland, Oregon, and Carlsbad, California. The company on Tuesday said that the closure of the three offices is a location strategy and it hopes people choose to relocate.

"The unique culture and values of Walmart are at the core of who we are — to our customers, members, associates and partners," Walmart said in a statement. "With this in mind, we’ve made the decision to focus our tech team’s presence within select locations. We hope to relocate or allow for remote work for all affected associates."

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of workers who are affected will have to move to keep their jobs and will be required to come into the office at least two days a week. The report, which cites a memo to Walmart Staff from Walmart's global chief technology officer Suresh Kumar, said the company hopes to relocate most of its workers and will pay for location transfers. Some will be allowed to become full-time remote workers, and those who leave will be given severance pay, the report said.

How many employees will be affected?

It's not clear how many employees may be affected by the closure. As of late 2018, the office had about 50 employees with plans to grow to 60. It also had plans to add a team of 30 technologists at the same site through a partnership with Microsoft. Walmart declined to share an updated Austin headcount and said it does not disclose the number of employees by office location.

When did Walmart open its Austin tech hub?

The corporate giant first opened up the engineering hub in 2018 in a renovated 8,000-square-foot space at the site of a former Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Fourth and Colorado streets. The office, called Walmart ATX was opened to develop emerging technology such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain and Internet of Things technology to be used by the company globally.

At the time, the company said it was investing in Austin as part of a strategy to recruit skilled technology workers where they already were. The office was the first office outside of Walmart's Bentonville headquarters focused on emerging technology for the company's Global Business division including developing technology for the company's enterprise operations such as finance, governance, human relations, employee training and manufacturing.

Later that year, Walmart also said it would be expanding the technology hub by opening a joint office with Microsoft. The company said it would have a team of 30 workers between the two companies to collaborate on technology development including work on artificial intelligence. The joint team was expected to be called 4.co for the office's location at Fourth and Colorado streets. The office was expected to open in early 2019.

Who else has tech offices in Austin?

Walmart, the world's largest employer, is one of several corporations that had opened technology offices in Austin, including USAA, General Motors, and H-E-B.

The Walmart ATX closure comes as the tech industry is hit with widespread layoffs. Industry experts have said it's certain Austin has been affected by the cuts from a number of major technology companies, though it's unclear the exact number of local jobs lot. Tech giants with large Austin presences including Google, Meta, Austin-based Tesla, and Round Rock-based Dell Technologies have all laid off employees since late last year. Meta also said last year it would no longer be using an office space it had long-planned to expand into in downtown Austin and would instead sublease the space.