Walmart is investing $1.3 billion in a 1.5-million-square-foot next-generation fulfillment center in Carnesville, Georgia, and $350 million to modernize its regional distribution center in Cullman, Alabama, according to a September 24 report from Distribution Strategy Group. This desk has not seen a Walmart release for either project, so the figures below are the trade outlet’s.
Carnesville is the sixth facility in Walmart’s next-generation fulfillment network. Construction begins in late 2026, and the site is expected to create 1,000 jobs. In Cullman, building permits are valued at $29.55 million, and the upgrade is described as doubling the merchandise the center can process. A perishable distribution center is also in development in Belvidere, Illinois.
The operating context matters more than the dollar figures. Distribution Strategy Group reports that about half of Walmart U.S. ecommerce fulfillment volume was automated as of May 2026, and that more than 60 percent of U.S. stores receive freight from automated distribution centers. For an operations engineer, those are the baselines against which Carnesville should be judged.
Two supplier-facing programs sit alongside the buildings. A Prepaid Consolidation Program launched in May lets suppliers ship to one consolidation point, with Walmart distributing from there to its 42 regional distribution centers; C.H. Robinson, Hub Group and RJW Logistics are named partners. Scintilla, Walmart’s AI-powered commerce intelligence platform, gives suppliers a joined-up view of sales, customer behavior and inventory, with automated replenishment alerts.
What the report omits is what buyers and competitors will want: the automation vendor or vendors, the throughput target per site, the split between the $1.3 billion’s buildings and equipment, and a commissioning date. Until those appear, Carnesville is a large number and a square footage, not yet a benchmark.
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