With an estimated US $500 million investment, Walmart has laid the first stone of a new artificial intelligence-powered warehouse in Silao (Guanajuato), in central Mexico.

“This investment represents jobs, progress, and opportunities for our Guanajuato families,” state Governor Libia Dennise García wrote on her official X account. “Thank you very much, Walmart Mexico, for trusting Guanajuato. I’m sure we will continue to work together.

The new distribution center will serve over 600 stores and clubs in Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. It will create 1,044 permanent jobs, according to reporting by the newspaper El Economista.

A warehouse with the highest levels of automation in all of Latin America

Ignacio Caride, CEO and Director of Walmart Mexico and Central America, said that the upcoming distribution center reiterates the company’s commitment to the state, automation and simplification.

“Customers and partners will save money,” Caride said at the event.

The new warehouse, featuring an AI-powered robotic technological platform, will cover 9.5 hectares of built area within a 45-hectare property.

“This distribution center will feature one with the highest levels of automation in all of Latin America,” said Gastón Weinstein, a senior executive at Walmart Mexico.  He also explained that Walmart Mexico will incorporate the same technologies used in the United States, due to its partnership with Symbotic, a robotic warehouse automation company based in Massachusetts.

Walmart Mexico began operations in Guanajuato almost three decades ago. It owns 143 stores, a portfolio which includes Walmart stores as well as Bodega Aurrerá and Sam’s Club.. Its expansion plans include new stores in the Guanajuato municipalities of Salamanca, Apaseo el Grande and Cortazar.

Walmart Mexico boasts over 2,700 stores nationwide and employs over 230,000 people, across the country.

With reports from El Economista, Mexico NOW and Forbes México