Walmart Pays $1.4 Billion For Tiger Global’s Flipkart Stake

Walmart has reportedly paid $1.4 billion for a larger stake in Indian eCommerce firm Flipkart.

The retailer made that purchase in recent days from investment management group Tiger Global, Bloomberg News reported Monday (July 31), citing a letter to investors. That letter values Flipkart at $35 billion, down from $38 billion in a 2021 funding round.

A separate report from the Economic Times says Walmart also purchased venture capital outfit Accel’s 1% stake in Flipkart. Between the two purchases, Walmart now owns 77% of Flipkart, up from 72%. 

A spokesperson from Walmart told PYMNTS, “We remain confident in the future of Flipkart and are even more positive about the opportunity in India today than when we first invested. We continue to be impressed with Flipkart’s progress and remain focused on building a healthy, sustainable and profitable business for the long term, ensuring Flipkart continues to grow in an emerging and dynamic market.

The news comes as Walmart and rival Amazon are working to boost their presence in India. Walmart is counting on the country — more to the point, on Flipkart and payments provider PhonePe — to help it achieve its goal of doubling its overseas gross merchandise volume to $200 billion in five years.

“It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 billion businesses in the future,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said last month.

As PYMNTS has written, the retailer leads Amazon in eCommerce sales in India due to Flipkart — which it purchased a majority stake in for $16 billion in 2018 — where it enjoys a 48% share of the market. 

It’s a rare victory for Walmart in that battle, as Amazon continually leads in the eCommerce category in the U.S.

“With Amazon accounting for an estimated 48% of U.S. retail spend compared to Walmart’s 7%, it is evident who takes the eCommerce crown,” PYMNTS wrote in June. “Quarter-over-quarter between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023, Amazon increased its share of eCommerce spend from 43.7% to 47.9%, representing growth of more than 4 percentage points. During the same period, Walmart rose from 5.7% to 6.7%.”

This month has also seen Flipkart extending its reach beyond eCommerce, teaming up with Axis Bank to introduce a digitally enabled personal loan offering.

Walmart also announced earlier this year that Flipkart’s discounted resale product app Shopsy had seen growth both in numbers and geographical expansion across India, with 175 million downloads.

Amazon, meanwhile, has said it plans to invest $26 billion in India by 2030, per comments from CEO Andy Jassy last month. That followed earlier announcements that Amazon Web Services would invest $12.9 billion in the country. Amazon has also pledged a $6.5 billion investment to boost its Indian eCommerce business.

 

Flying Cars Can Wait: CES Shows Future Is Robots That Cool Your Soup, Pick Up Socks

AI Me gadget from CES 2025

What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?

These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.

Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.

CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.

From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.

See also: The Five Not-So-Obvious Things That Will Change the Digital Economy in 2025

Could Smart Home Robots Revolutionize Daily Life?

It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.

For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.

CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.

For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.

Read more: Training Robots Using Video Games Could Democratize Warehouse Automation

The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.

Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.

As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.

TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.

It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.

Read more: Google Reportedly Bringing Gemini AI to TV Sets

The Future Is Calling and Consumers Can Answer Anywhere

Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.

As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.

Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.

But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.