Waymo Secures $16 Billion to Expand Robotaxi Operations Worldwide
The Alphabet-owned company plans expansion into more than a dozen new cities, as investors double down on autonomous ride-hailing.
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Waymo, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Alphabet, has raised $16 billion in new funding as it accelerates plans to expand its driverless taxi operations into more than a dozen additional cities worldwide, including London and Tokyo. The financing round, led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, values Waymo at $126 billion. Alphabet participated and remains the company’s majority investor.
The scale and composition of the investor base which includes Andreessen Horowitz, Mubadala Capital, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price signals growing confidence that autonomous ride-hailing is moving from prolonged experimentation to commercial deployment. For much of the past decade, Waymo’s progress appeared incremental, defined by extended testing cycles, limited pilots, and cautious geographic rollouts. That posture has shifted sharply since late 2023, when the company received final regulatory clearance to operate and charge for robotaxi services in California.
Since then, Waymo has expanded aggressively across major U.S. metropolitan areas, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami, with Phoenix continuing to serve as its longest-running fully driverless market. A partnership with Uber has further accelerated market entry in select cities. The company now reports providing roughly 400,000 paid rides per week across six U.S. regions. In 2025 alone, Waymo more than tripled its annual ride volume to 15 million, pushing lifetime rides past 20 million.
From a strategic perspective, the latest funding round appears designed less to prove technological feasibility and more to finance operational scale: fleet expansion, infrastructure build-out, regulatory engagement, and international market entry. In a blog post announcing the raise, Waymo framed its next phase as the foundation for ride-hailing operations in over 20 additional cities by 2026, explicitly positioning Tokyo and London as early international targets.
However, rapid expansion has also intensified scrutiny. Waymo’s vehicles have drawn criticism for operational errors, particularly in dense urban environments. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have opened investigations into reports of illegal behavior near school buses and in school zones. Most recently, federal regulators launched an inquiry after a Waymo robotaxi struck a child near a school at low speed, resulting in minor injuries.
These incidents highlight a central tension facing the autonomous vehicle industry. Waymo’s latest raise suggests investors believe the company is positioned to manage that transition but the margin for error is narrowing.
