Raphael Stevens

Ford’s new 2.1-million-square-foot headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, is ceremoniously opening Sunday, although construction is expected to continue into 2027.
The new headquarters replaces a 12-story, rectangular-shaped building known as “The Glass House” roughly three miles away in Detroit.
The automaker is trying to make coming into the office more enticing with scratch kitchens, more outdoor space and places to collaborate.

The exterior of the main entrance of Ford Motor’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor is swapping its 1950s “Glass House” headquarters for a new, modern industrial facility to promote collaboration and better appease thousands of employees who have returned to offices in recent years after remote working.
The new 2.1-million-square-foot facility in Dearborn, Michigan, is ceremoniously opening Sunday, although construction is expected to continue into 2027.

It replaces a 12-story, rectangular-shaped headquarters roughly three miles away in the city that is expected to be demolished. The new building marks Ford’s sixth headquarters since its founding in 1903.
Currently nicknamed “The Hub,” the new headquarters will consolidate thousands of employees and several prior locations under one — albeit very large — roof. It is eventually expected to be home to up to 4,000 executives and employees involved with daily business operations, design and product development.

Ford Motor’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, will function as corporate offices as well as a design and product development center.

From an operational basis, the new headquarters is roughly split evenly between design and industrial operations. Design includes massive studios with hidden courtyards and a large showroom. The other half is set to be used for general business operations such as executive offices and common work and meeting areas.
There are very few actual offices outside of those for top executives, according to the company. The idea is for employees to be able to work as they choose in different areas, or “neighborhoods,” depending on what they’re working on that day, officials said. Domain staking, where employees attempt to make a space their permanent workplace, will be discouraged, said Jennifer Kolstad, global design and brand director for Ford Land, the automaker’s property management group.
“It’s not just a building. This is a space that is a tool for our employees to be more productive, to be more collaborative, and really help deliver the Ford+ plan,” said Jim Dobleske, Ford Land chair and CEO, during a tour of the building.

The Ford+ plan was introduced by CEO Jim Farley as a turnaround and efficiency plan for the automaker in 2021.

A coffee bar in Ford Motor’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

As of the end of last year, Ford employed roughly 30,500 white-collar salaried workers in the U.S. The company continues to own or utilize other properties throughout the U.S., including large bases in Dearborn and surrounding areas.
Many salaried employees are expected in offices at least four days a week, as of earlier this year, after many of them had a more loose hybrid office-home schedule following the end of the pandemic.
“We’re inviting them back into a space that is a tool to help them do their best work. And that best work tends to come with collaboration with other teams,” Dobleske said.

Scratch kitchens

Some of that collaboration is expected to occur over food.
The new headquarters includes a 160,000-square-foot dining area with eight “kitchen concepts” that will feature rotating menus as well as take-home options such as pizza and $6 whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar complete with a herb garden.

A worker takes out a batch of rotisserie chickens inside Ford Motor’s new world headquarters on Nov. 10, 2025, in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

“We have guests coming in from all over the world, so we wanted to make sure we have designed our menus to kind of play homage to that diversity,” said Grant Vella, executive chef for the new ]headquarters. “We wanted to do something different, push the boundary of business dining.”
Outside of the kitchens and dining areas, vegetation and outdoor spaces are meant to make for a more walkable-friendly campus compared with the automaker’s prior, largely street- and parking lot-locked facility.
“This headquarters is the cornerstone of our campus redevelopment, but there’s been a tremendous amount of work that we have done throughout the campus to really connect it and make it much more walkable for our employees,” Dobleske said, pointing to several facilities and areas, including a test track and 18-acre “Horsepower Park,” surrounding the building.

An herb garden inside the dining and kitchen area of Ford Motor’s new world headquarters on Nov. 10, 2025 in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Inside the building are six courtyards, including a dual-level one at the center of the company’s new design studios to allow designers to take products outside to view them outdoors in natural light. Those design courtyards are exclusive areas that can only be viewed by the surrounding, private studios.
Most of the four-story building features outside natural light from the exterior glass walls as well as skylights and other windowed areas.

Ford Motor’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, which will function as corporate offices as well as a design and product development center.

Hidden designs

In addition to making a more walkable exterior campus, Ford wants employees to use purposefully designed stairs rather than elevators and escalators that are the primary modes of transportation in its most-recent 12-story headquarters.
Craig Dykers, founding partner of Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta that worked on the building, said each staircase in the building, especially in its 14 different arrival areas, are prominent and meant to be inviting to use.
“Obviously people don’t naturally want to climb a stair, so you have to design it very carefully so that people feel good about using the stair,” he said. “Part of the trick is that as you go up one flight, you don’t necessarily see the next flight, so it’s kind of a journey.”
Stairs inside the main lobby of the building are extremely wide and feature seating areas alongside the actual low-rise stairs. There’s also a coffee bar on a large landing above the main lobby.

Ford Bronco parts painted white in the American Road Lobby of the automaker’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

The coffee bar overlooks a white artwork that features vehicle parts — one of many prominent pieces of art Ford purchased or has curated for the new facility. Others are photos or drawings of vehicles, while some are simply non-automotive artistic pieces.
Inside the company’s design operations are large studios with advanced clay milling machines, a spacious showroom that will operate as a modern design dome and a 64-foot screen showing virtual reviews and testing.
What employees will not see much of is the company’s logo, the well-known blue oval surrounding the “Ford” name. There will be a massive Ford blue oval logo on the outside of the building but not on its interior. Unless you look closely.
On some exterior glass walls, such as the company’s design operations, there’s a glass pattern that features the ovals accompanied by hidden numbers that represent Ford patents.

Ford’s signature blue oval design can be seen in glass on the outside of its new world headquarters, in addition to numbers representing patents held by the company.

Ford declined to discuss the capital spent to build its new headquarters and design center, which was part of a previously announced $1 billion campus transformation that began under former CEO Jim Hackett, who previously led furniture company Steelcase.
Here’s a look inside the new world headquarters:

Workers prepare to raise a large Ford Motor blue oval onto the company’s new headquarters on Nov. 10, 2025 in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Artwork made of vehicle parts hangs in the main lobby of Ford Motor’s new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford is trying to make coming into the office more enticing with scratch kitchens, more outdoor space and places to collaborate at its new world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

A collaborative work space inside Ford Motor’s new headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford’s new headquarters includes a 160,000-square-foot dining area with eight “kitchen concepts” that will feature rotating menus as well as take-home options such as pizza and $6 whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar complete with a herb garden.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford’s new headquarters includes a 160,000-square-foot dining area with eight “kitchen concepts” that will feature rotating menus as well as take-home options such as pizza and $6 whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar complete with a herb garden.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford’s new headquarters includes a 160,000-square-foot dining area with eight “kitchen concepts” that will feature rotating menus as well as take-home options such as pizza and $6 whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar complete with a herb garden.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

A large courtyard near the kitchen and dining inside Ford Motor’s new world headquarters remains under construction on Nov. 10, 2025 in Dearborn, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC More

Airline executives are pushing lawmakers to make sure air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers are paid if there’s another shutdown.
Air traffic controller staffing could become even more difficult as a result from the record shutdown, Transportation Secretary Duffy said.
More than 5 million travelers’ were affected by cancellations and delays during the shutdown, which worsened hours before the Senate reached a deal to reopen the government.

Planes line up on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on November 10, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The U.S. has been scrambling to hire more air traffic controllers for years. The longest-ever federal government shutdown might have made that even harder.
“We need more of them to come into the profession, and this shutdown is going to make that more difficult for us to accomplish that goal,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday, a day before Congress signed a bill to fund the federal government through January, ending the shutdown.

Air traffic controllers were required to work without receiving regular paychecks during the shutdown. They were paid in part on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, but during the shutdown some had taken second jobs to make ends meet, while the lack of regular pay added to their stress, union and government officials and lawmakers have said.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported low-staffing thresholds were hit that that slowed aircraft around the country during the final days of the shutdown. President Donald Trump earlier this week threatened to dock air traffic controllers’ pay if they didn’t go to work. On Friday, staffing levels were relatively strong around the U.S. and disruptions eased.
“It can’t make it look like this is a great job because you’re going to have to deal with this all the time,” said Tim Kiefer, who teaches air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
Kiefer was an air traffic controller for more than two decades before he retired. He said shutdowns or the threat of them were common during his career. “You may see people decide to do other things and say, ‘They didn’t get paid; they were stuck in the middle of a partisan dispute,'” he said.

Read more CNBC airline news

5 million passengers

The shortage of air traffic controllers delayed or canceled thousands flights during the shutdown, affecting the travel plans of more than 5 million people, according to Airlines for America, an industry group that includes American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and others.

But even with partial pay hitting bank accounts, the staffing crisis that regularly upends travel is set to continue.
A government tally last year showed the U.S. was short 3,903 fully certified air traffic controllers of a goal of 14,633. Shortages have been particularly severe at busy facilities like those where controllers guide planes in and out of airports in the congested New York area, adding to flight disruptions and frustrating airline executives and customers.

Meanwhile, retirements picked up in the shutdown, with 15 to 20 people retiring per day, down from a usual rate of four a day, Duffy said Tuesday. Controllers are required to retire at age 56 but can do so earlier with benefits depending on years on the job.
Staffing was already thin before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, and many controllers were working six-day workweeks. By mid-November, as air traffic controllers missed two full paychecks and the shutdown passed the one-month mark, it approached crisis levels.
More than 10% of U.S. departures were canceled last Sunday as bad weather combined with air traffic controller shortfalls at facilities across the country. That was the highest rate since July 19, 2024, during the CrowdStrike outage, which had an outsize impact on Delta Air Lines, leading to thousands of canceled flights and causing travel headaches, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.

Hours after those cancellations spiked on Sunday, the Senate advanced a preliminary deal that led to the vote ending the shutdown this week.
The Federal Aviation Administration in early November ordered airlines to cut 4% of flights from their domestic schedules at 40 major airports, blaming safety risks they found because of an increased strain on air traffic controllers. Cuts were set to ramp up to 10% on Friday, if the shutdown didn’t end. Cancellations, however, improved dramatically during the week and on Friday morning, just 2% of U.S. departures were canceled, according to Cirium.
The FAA brought its mandated cuts down from 6% to 3% starting on Saturday, saying it will monitor system performance throughout the weekend.
The disruptions were similar to those on days with severe storms, but were more widespread across the U.S.

Millions in lost revenue

The last-minute cuts were a headache for the industry, where airlines from top-moneymaker Delta to struggling carrier Spirt had already lowered their outlooks for the year after an oversupply of flights and weaker-than-expected demand earlier this year. Airlines haven’t yet quantified the damage from the shutdown, but Bank of America estimated a $150 million to $200 million operating income hit for big network airlines and less than $100 million for other carriers.

Travelers walk through the terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, more than a month into the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., Nov. 11, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters

Airline executives, exasperated by the recent disruptions, are now pushing Congress to make sure controllers are paid in the next shutdown.
“In the past week, we saw a crescendo effect as air traffic control staffing shortages led to massive and unpredictable amounts of delays and cancellations across the industry — and that was on top of a series of FAA-mandated schedule reductions,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom and the carrier’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said in a note to employees on Thursday, a day after the House approved a short-term funding bill. “While we both have been in this industry for a long time, only a few other events come to mind when we think about this level of disruption.”

It could have been worse. This part of the fall travel demand is relatively light, but Thanksgiving was fast approaching when Congress ended the shutdown, concerning airline executives.
“This shutdown put tremendous strain on our aviation system and caused severe inconvenience for the millions of Americans who depend on it,” United said in a statement. “It should be obvious to everyone that policy debates, however urgent, should never put air travel at risk, and we urge Congress to ensure that the FAA and [Transportation Security Administration’s] funding is protected in the event of any future lapse in federal appropriations.”

‘Political football’

It wasn’t the first time a government closure has put the aviation industry under strain. The 2018-2019 shutdown, then the longest in U.S. history, ended just hours after controller shortages snarled travel in the New York City area.
Some airline executives told CNBC that they were frustrated by this most recent shutdown and last-minute schedule changes, which ended up being greater than anticipated. One, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press, said “we were the pawns” in the shutdown.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Wednesday that “the thing we don’t like is being a political football” and said it was unacceptable that air traffic controllers and TSA officers were forced to work without regular paychecks.
The best way to prevent such disruptions is “to ensure those workers, the next time this happens because it will happen, get paid,” Bastian said. “Who could disagree with that?”
The airline industry is urging Congress for legislation that could make use of funds generated by airplane ticket taxes to ensure air traffic controllers and other essential industry workers like airport screeners and Customs agents are paid.
“You don’t hold the American public hostage over a political fight like that,” Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, said in a virtual press conference Wednesday, shortly before the House passed the funding bill.

Travelers check their flight status at Dulles International airport as the nation’s air travel system begins to return to normal, as the U.S. government opens back up following the longest shutdown in U.S. history, in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. Nov. 13, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Next Wednesday, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who chairs the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation, will hold a hearing on the shutdown’s impact on aviation. Moran this year pushed for legislation that would let the FAA use the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which is funded by taxes on airplane tickets and fuel, to cover expenses if the government shuts down.
“The government shutdown has severely impacted our already fragile aviation industry, and recovering from its effects will take time,” he said in a release this week. “It’s critical that we address the damage done and look at the long-term effects of the shutdown.”
Lawmakers earlier this year approved $12.5 billion to improve air traffic control, though the industry said it needs billions more to modernize the system in the U.S.
The fatal collision of an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., in January also made hiring controllers more urgent, especially at congested facilities.
About a month after the crash, Duffy announced the country’s air traffic controller academy would raise pay for students, and he authorized more universities to teach a similar curriculum to help ease the shortage. The academy in Oklahoma City also stayed open, a different tactic than in the 2018-2019 shutdown.
But those aren’t immediate fixes. It takes years for controllers to be fully trained to work at some of the more complex facilities, and applicants to the academy can be no older than 30. More

President Donald Trump exempted agricultural imports like beef, coffee, cocoa and bananas from his higher tariff rates.
The move comes as he faces political blowback for higher prices on grocery staples.
The action also extends to tomatoes, avocados and tea, among other items.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during an announcement from the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct. 23, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

President Donald Trump on Friday exempted key agricultural imports like coffee, cocoa, bananas and certain beef products from his higher tariff rates.
The move comes as Trump faces political blowback for high prices at U.S. grocery stores. Some distributors of beef, coffee, chocolate and other common food items have raised prices as Trump’s tariffs took hold this year, adding to pressure on household budgets created by decades-high inflation in recent years.

Trump’s action Friday also exempts a range of fruits including tomatoes, avocados, coconuts, oranges and pineapples. Along with coffee, the tariff reductions extend to black and green tea, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
The move marks a reversal for Trump, who has insisted tariffs are necessary to protect U.S. businesses and workers. He has contended U.S. consumers will not ultimately pay for the higher duties.
The exemptions come just a day after Trump reached trade framework agreements with four Latin American countries – including 10% tariffs on most goods from Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and 15% from Ecuador. It also removes duties specifically on products not grown or produced in the U.S. in sufficient quantities, like bananas and coffee.
Rising food prices have hampered U.S. households for several years. Consumer Price Index data show food-at-home prices increased approximately 2.7% year-over-year in September. (More recent data was delayed because of the government shutdown).
The tariff exemptions aim to help moderate these grocery price increases, although experts caution that other factors such as global supply shortages also influence prices, especially for coffee and beef.

Here’s more background on how industries like beef, coffee and cocoa have reacted to tariffs and rising prices.

Beef

A customer shops for meat at a Costco store on Nov. 11, 2025 in Novato, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The tariff exemption for beef comes after months of rising prices tied in part to Trump’s own tariff policy.
Over the past year, the U.S. imposed steep duties on major suppliers including Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay. Brazil – the world’s second-largest beef producer – has faced effective tariff rates topping 75%, driving down imports into the U.S. just as the cattle herd in the country hit a near 75-year low.
Ranchers have struggled to rebuild herds amid drought, higher feed costs and tariffs on fertilizer, steel and aluminum that have made equipment and repairs more expensive.
The supply squeeze has fueled a spike in prices at the grocery store: uncooked beef products rose 12% to 18% year over year in September, according to the most recent consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Producers told CNBC earlier this month that policy whiplash, from changing tariff rates to the recent expansion of Argentina’s beef quota, has further chilled long-term investment, keeping supplies tight and sentiment fragile.

Coffee

Coffee beans are displayed at a grocery store on Nov. 13, 2025 in San Anselmo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Ground roast coffee prices in the U.S. reached $8.41 per pound in July, a record high and a 33% increase from the prior year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazilian coffee –  which supplies roughly a third of U.S. imports – drove up costs across the roasting and retail supply chains. Vietnam, Colombia and other major exporters have also been swept up in the administration’s food tariffs.
Roasters and cafés say they have no way around the duties because the U.S. produces none of the beans it consumes, leaving importers exposed to higher costs regardless of origin. The September CPI report found that coffee prices climbed nearly 21% in August from the prior year. That was the largest jump since the 1990s.
Retailers have warned the impact could have spread if tariffs stayed in place. The Tax Foundation estimated in August that 74% of U.S. food imports faced tariffs, already hitting tea, spices and other products that, like coffee, have no domestic supply chain.
Many of those products that have little or no U.S. production were on the list of items Trump exempted from higher tariffs Friday.
Global coffee prices are hovering near a 50-year high reached in February.

Cocoa

Cocoa has faced similar price pressures.
Even after a sharp selloff this fall, futures are still more than double pre-pandemic levels, costing roughly $5,300 today, following tariffs and three years of weather-driven crop failures in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
In October, Hershey executives said they expected $160 million to $170 million in tariff expenses this year, on top of record-high bean costs that pushed retail chocolate prices nearly 30% higher from the prior year heading into Halloween, according to research firm Circana. More

Insurer Zurich North America announced Friday it will only insure construction wrap-up projects in New York that have installed video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight. 
Arrowsight, a safety technology company specializing in video-based behavioral modification and coaching analytics, uses specialty cameras at job sites that capture workers if they disregard safety rules.

New technology is cutting workers’ compensation claims and fraud across industries.
But in construction, the results are on camera.  

Working with Arrowsight, a safety technology company specializing in video-based behavioral modification and coaching analytics, specialty cameras are installed around job sites. Those cameras will pick up on things like workers scrambling under a load of lumber suspended from a crane or failing to tie into safety harnesses balanced high above the ground. The videos are flagged by a team and safety supervisors are informed. Workers then get feedback and proper training.
In New York, where both the cost of workers’ compensation insurance and the frequency and severity of claims are among the highest in the nation, the safety improvements from the camera surveillance are so dramatic on construction sites that insurer Zurich North America announced Friday it will only insure construction wrap-up projects that have installed video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight. 
A $2 billion, three-year pilot program on nine large-scale New York City construction job sites showed a more than 70% reduction in workers’ comp claims and a near elimination of racketeering charges in NYC when video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight were implemented, the insurer said.
“The dramatic results underscore the power of combining human insight with technology to drive measurable change,” Tobias Cushing, Zurich head of construction, told CNBC. “We saw a virtual elimination of serious injuries and deaths on projects with Arrowsight.”

Arrowsight cameras on-site.
Arrowsight

Arrowsight uses fixed-point cameras that are moveable, battery-powered and cell-enabled that can operate without electricity or internet.

“We have a whole program where we’re using civil engineers overnight to kind of look at all these high-risk work activities and then provide feedback, kind of coaching clips just like you would see on Sports Center to help the supervisors coach the workers to avoid taking these kinds of risks,” Adam Aronson, founder and CEO of Arrowsight, said.
It has increased worker safety compliance rates from around 70% before the implementation of Arrowsight to 97% to 100% in many cases, according to the pilot program data.
Arrowsight’s technology was already in use in a range of other industries, from health-care facilities to meatpacking plants, before Aronson identified construction as an industry that could benefit from video-based tech.
Posillico Civil was the first civil construction company in the U.S. to work with Arrowsight. The four-year pilot study resulted in the company’s Experience Modification Rate (EMR), a key claims-incident rating that factors into workers’ compensation premiums, dropping from 0.65 to 0.25. EMR represents a relative safety score, with scores less than one being favorable.
Arrowsight also signed a master service agreement with Chubb this summer with the primary focus on construction. More

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will retire early next year, according to a company filing.
John Furner, currently Walmart’s U.S. CEO, will take over as head of the retailer on Feb. 1.
Since McMillon stepped into the top role in 2014, Walmart’s shares have risen nearly 300%.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is retiring early next year, after overseeing the top U.S. retailer’s transformation into an e-commerce behemoth, the company said Friday in a filing.
The longtime CEO will be succeeded by John Furner, the Walmart U.S. CEO, on Feb. 1, according to the filing.

McMillon, who stepped into the top role at Walmart in February 2014, will officially retire as of Jan. 31. He will continue to serve as an executive officer of the company and be employed by Walmart as an advisor through Jan. 31, 2027.
Furner, 51, has been the CEO of Walmart’s U.S. business since 2019. In that role, he oversees more than 4,600 stores and the largest sector of the company. He started at the company in 1993 as an hourly associate.

Walmart Inc. President and CEO Doug McMillon delivers a keynote address during CES 2024 at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on January 9, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images

The announcement of the CEO transition comes only six days before the retailer is set to report quarterly earnings. Walmart shares were up 13% this year as of Thursday’s close, as the company grows its digital business and wins over more high-income shoppers.
For more than a decade, McMillon, 59, has led the retail giant and overseen the company’s growth as an e-commerce leader. He also oversaw the business during a tumultuous time marked by the Covid pandemic, supply chain disruptions, high inflation and tariff changes.
During his time leading the company, Walmart’s shares have risen more than 300%. The company’s stock closed Friday at $102.48, roughly flat.

Stock chart icon

Walmart stock since Feb. 1, 2014.

From hourly employees to CEOs

McMillon and Furner have had similar paths to the top role at Walmart. Both have spent about three decades at Walmart. They both began as hourly associates and moved up the ranks at the retail giant, serving in merchandising and operations roles. Both also served as chief executives of its warehouse club, Sam’s Club.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced that its Board of Directors has elected John Furner, 51, to succeed Doug McMillon, 59, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart Inc., effective February 1, 2026.
Courtesy: Walmart Inc.

In a statement, Walmart chairman Greg Penner described Furner as “the right leader to guide Walmart into the next chapter of our growth and transformation.”
“After starting as an hourly associate and being with us for over 30 years in a variety of leadership roles across all three of our operating segments, John understands every dimension of our business – from the sales floor to global strategy,” Penner added.
“Serving as Walmart’s CEO has been a great honor and I’m thankful to our Board and the Walton family for the opportunity,” McMillon said in a statement.
He said Furner’s “curiosity and digital acumen combined with a deep commitment to our people and culture will enable him to take us to the next level.”
Along with Walmart, big-box competitor Target is also poised to get a new leader in early 2026. Target announced last month that Michael Fiddelke, chief operating officer and former chief financial officer, will succeed longtime Target CEO Brian Cornell on Feb. 1.

Digital growth and workforce transformation

As the leader of Walmart, McMillon played an instrumental role in turning the nation’s largest grocer into an e-commerce giant and positioning the company to sell more advertisements and more discretionary merchandise, along with dozens of eggs and gallons of milk.
During his early years as CEO, McMillon greenlit the $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com in 2016, an e-commerce startup that Walmart hoped would fuel digital growth and give it credibility as it tried to fight back against Amazon’s meteoric rise.
The startup’s acquisition — particularly its steep price tag — prompted debates in retail circles about whether the retail giant had overpaid for the asset and if that move was needed to help Walmart navigate a rocky entry into the world of e-commerce. Yet the deal gained Walmart talent with digital know-how, particularly Jet.com founder and serial entrepreneur Marc Lore who had sold his previous company, Quidsi, the parent of Diapers.com, to Amazon and worked for Amazon for years.
During Lore’s years as leader of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce business, Walmart bought digital native businesses including menswear company Bonobos and birthed other in-house concepts, such as mattress brand Allswell. Walmart later sold Bonobos and other digital businesses, and shuttered Jet.com in 2020.
Though the Jet.com deal did not meet some Wall Street investors’ expectations, McMillon on a call with analysts at the time credited the acquisition for “jump-starting the progress we have made the last few years” in digital growth and curbside pickup and delivery.
Over the past five years, Walmart has leaned on its membership program, Walmart+, and its third-party marketplace as it tries to fend off Amazon’s e-commerce dominance. It launched Walmart+, its own subscription service and its answer to Amazon Prime, in 2020 and has continued to add perks like streaming through Paramount+.
Through its third-party marketplace, it has bulked up its merchandise offerings on virtual shelves by leaning on independent sellers to provide its customers with a wider range of clothing items, beauty brands and even luxury handbags. The model, which mirrored Amazon’s approach, also allowed Walmart to make money in new ways, such as selling ads and fulfillment services to sellers.
A CNBC investigation earlier this year found Walmart’s marketplace boom came as it made it easier than Amazon did over time for sellers to join the platform. CNBC uncovered at least 43 vendors who had taken the identity of another business to sell on Walmart’s marketplace, and some of those accounts were offering counterfeit beauty products.
Elsewhere in the company, McMillon also shook up Walmart’s pay structure for its hundreds of thousands of employees, announcing in 2015 that the company would give a raise to half a million hourly employees and increase wages to $9 an hour — a move that at the time faced sharp criticism on Wall Street.
In more recent years, Walmart has hiked wages multiple more times. But it has faced persistent criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and other politicians who have argued the company has failed to share enough of its profits with hourly employees through pay and benefits.
As the nation’s largest private employer, Walmart has also been closely watched as the rise of artificial intelligence brings workforce changes and could threaten employment.
McMillon recently said that AI “is going to change literally every job.”
In a statement, McMillon referred to the growth of AI being a new dynamic facing his successor. And, he said, Furner is “uniquely capable of leading the company through this next AI-driven transformation.” More