Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. Location data: bad. Walmart data: good?!

Walmart Connect expands offsite advertising ambitions with Yahoo, Magnite
Source: Marketing Dive
June 1st, 2026

Summary: Walmart's US advertising arm, Walmart Connect, is opening up access to its first-party data beyond its own DSP (which is powered by The Trade Desk). New partnerships with Yahoo DSP and Magnite mark the first time advertisers can utilize Walmart's shopper data outside of the Walmart DSP. The initial focus is on CTV, with Vizio inventory (acquired by Walmart for $2.3B in 2024) front and center.

This follows the end of Walmart's four-year exclusive deal with The Trade Desk last year. Walmart still operates its own DSP, powered by TTD, but now wants its data available wherever advertisers are buying, not just inside its walled garden. Magnite handles the supply-side plumbing; Yahoo is the first demand-side partner.

Offsite retail media spending is projected to top $17B in 2026, up 29.5% YoY. Offsite display campaigns through Walmart Connect delivered a median of 52% new-to-brand customers in 2025. More DSP partnerships are expected to follow.

Opinion: When Walmart first partnered with The Trade Desk, the popular take was: Walmart is using TTD's tech to prove out the ad business, then it will buy or build its own stack once the business is validated and they have enough direct demand. Amazon did it. Everyone assumed Walmart would too (including us).

When Walmart ended TTD’s exclusivity last year, the popular take was: Walmart is ready to buy or build.

That still may happen. But the Yahoo and Magnite deals suggest Walmart could be going in a different direction altogether.

Instead of owning ad tech and competing with all the other ad tech players, Walmart may be opening itself up — making its shopper data available across the ecosystem rather than locking it behind a proprietary DSP. Instead of being like Amazon and competing for demand, perhaps Walmart wants to be like Roku and Disney and access demand everywhere it possibly can.

You might be thinking, “Okay, that’s cool, but why would Walmart want to pay fees and cut into its margin to access demand?” Glad you asked. Walmart's first-party data is so valuable that it can likely dictate its terms to any company. Every ad tech company trying to compete against Amazon and Google (which is literally every ad tech company) has the same problem — they don't have scalable purchase data that closes the loop. Walmart does. Walmart can name its price.

So if you’re Walmart, why build and maintain a full ad stack — with all of the investment required, the time needed, the engineering overhead, the competition — when you can outsource that to the rest of the industry and not pay for it? Run your data across everyone's rails, tap into all the existing demand in the market, and cash checks on your terms. And if any company tries to play hardball on fees (TTD?), there's a line of competitors happy to take their place. 

Walmart doesn't need to win the DSP wars. And it doesn’t need to be beholden to any DSP. Perhaps that’s been the strategy all along.

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