Robotaxi developer Waymo has closed an oversubscribed Series C funding round totaling $5.6 billion. Alongside an expanded partnership with Uber, the funds will help the rideshare company expand its Waymo-One robotaxi service throughout current and additional cities in the US.
While some robotaxi networks are slowing down their expansion plans and OEMs like Tesla struggle to deliver genuine autonomy to the masses, Waymo has chugged along and continues progressing in the rideshare industry.
In the past three months, Waymo has expanded its operations in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, announced plans to integrate IONIQ 5 BEVs into its fleet, and snagged Tesla’s head of vehicle programs.
Part of Waymo’s success in development and expansion to new cities is the financial backing of parent company Alphabet Inc. (Google). This past June, Alphabet committed another $5 billion to be distributed over the next several years.
Today, Waymo announced its Series C funding round closed at an oversubscribed amount of $5.6 billion, led, of course, by Alphabet, Inc.
Waymo flush with cash as its expands to cities like Atlanta
The robotaxi network shared details of its successful funding round this morning, which included additional investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.
Following its latest investment, the company said it would continue to expand its Waymo-One rideshare services around current cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. In 2025, the company also plans to expand robotaxi rides to Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. The expansion of cities has resulted from an ongoing partnership between Waymo and Uber.
The release also said the funds will be used to continue to develop Waymo Driver — its AI-powered autonomous driving system that will be utilized to “support a variety of business applications over time.” Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban elaborated:
While AI is only just beginning to capture the public imagination, Waymo has been working to bring its endless possibilities to the world of physical transportation for years. The Waymo Driver leads in earning trust by safely actualizing the value and potential of AI through cutting-edge research, practical solutions, and a vastly expanding scope and scale of real world experience.
This year, Waymo says it is averaging 100,000 paid weekly trips, a tenfold increase compared to 2023, and has begun fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco. Looking ahead, Waymo shared that it is already testing its system in cities with more complex environments, like Buffalo, New York, and Washington, D.C.