Wing, the autonomous drone-delivery subsidiary of Alphabet, and Walmart on June 9, 2026 named seven new U.S. metros that will join what the companies call the country's largest residential drone-delivery network: Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Salt Lake City.
From 13 Markets To Nearly 20
The additions move the partnership toward nearly 20 U.S. markets and lock in a roadmap of more than 270 drone-delivery locations reaching over 40 million Americans by 2027. They build on Wing and Walmart's existing routes in Dallas–Fort Worth, Greater Houston and Metro Atlanta and on previously announced cities including Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Miami. The companies say they have completed more than one million commercial deliveries together to date.
How The Service Will Work In The New Cities
Wing drones cruise at up to 60 mph (97 km/h) and use a tether to lower packages directly into a yard or driveway, with deliveries completing in as little as 30 minutes. Eligible Walmart customers will see the drone option on the Walmart app or website based on the address on file, or can route orders through Wing's own app. The fleet is designed for single-family homes, apartment buildings and commercial drop zones across each metro footprint, with Walmart and Wing pledging to coordinate with local leaders before each city goes live.
Why The Service Map Is Different This Time
Adding Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area gives Wing and Walmart their first genuinely dense urban operating environments — a step up from the suburban-southeast footprint that defined the partnership's first phase. Heather Rivera, Wing's chief business officer, said deliveries are running at a multiple-times-per-week cadence in current markets, which is the engagement number Wing needs to argue the service is a habit rather than a novelty.
Walmart's Multi-Operator Strategy
Walmart is not putting all of its eggs in Alphabet's basket. Senior VP Greg Cathey framed the Wing expansion as one of "multiple drone providers" Walmart is running in parallel, and the retailer has continued to expand its partnership with Zipline, which launched its first P2 drone site at Walmart stores in Texas last year. The Wing expansion lands within days of Amazon's competing 176-square-mile Prime Air drone zone proposal in upstate New York, and against the backdrop of the new FAA Part 108 drone delivery rule taking effect in July 2026.
Regulatory Tailwind Is Real
Wing's expansion timing is not accidental. Part 108, the FAA's permanent regulatory framework for routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone delivery, is the unlock the industry has been waiting for, replacing case-by-case waivers with a clearer ruleset. With Walmart's last-mile network as the anchor demand and Alphabet's autonomy stack as the supply, the new seven metros are the first batch of cities Wing will scale into a regulatory environment that finally exists.
Reporting based on coverage from The Robot Report, DroneLife and Robotics & Automation News.