[AutonomousVehicles] Waymo is in talks to raise $15 billion in funding

[Cornelius Butler]

Waymo is getting ready to raise money for expansion. Below is article link
and text from CNBC.

Article Link:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/16/alphabet-owned-waymo-in-talks-to-raise-15-billion-in-funding.html

Article Text:
Alphabet-owned Waymo in talks to raise $15 billion in funding


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Jennifer Elias
@in/jennifer-elias-845b


Self-driving car company Waymo is in talks to raise $15 billion in funding
in the new year.

The robotaxi company plans to raise billions from Alphabet, its parent
company, as well as outside investors at a valuation as high as $110
billion, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The latest funding discussions are indicative of Waymo’s status as the
leader of the pack in the U.S. robotaxi market. The company has been
spending heavily to ramp up its fleet and continue expanding to more
regions. Waymo is now either operating its robotaxis, planning to launch
service or starting to test its vehicles in 26 markets, in the U.S. and
abroad.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo will “meaningfully” contribute to
Alphabet’s financials as soon as 2027, CNBC reported Tuesday.

Waymo’s expansion across the U.S.
The map of the U.S. shows Waymo’s expansion as of the end of 2025.

Commercial robotaxi

Driver in testing

Plans for 2026

Source: Reporting by Lora Kolodny, Jennifer Elias, Annie Palmer and Evelyn
Cheng / CNBC


If the Google sister company winds up raising as much as $15 billion, that
would represent more than double the amount of its last funding round. That
was a series C round of $5.6 billion at a $45 billion valuation, which
closed in October 2024. Alphabet had committed $5 billion in a multiyear
investment to Waymo at the time.

That round was led by Alphabet alongside previous backers, including
Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and
T. Rowe Price. At the time, Waymo co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri
Dolgov said the funding would go toward expanding its robotaxi service.

Waymo currently serves paid rides to the public in the Austin, San
Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles markets.

Earlier this month, CNBC reported that Waymo crossed an estimated 450,000
weekly paid rides, and the company in December said it had served 14
million trips in 2025, putting it on pace to end the year at more than 20
million trips total since launching in 2020.

The company plans to open service next year in Dallas, Denver, Detroit,
Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego and
Washington, D.C. Waymo also announced plans to launch its service in London
in 2026, which will mark the company’s first overseas service region.

Amazon’s Zoox this year began offering free driverless rides to the public
around the Las Vegas Strip and certain San Francisco neighborhoods. Tesla
launched a Robotaxi-branded service in Austin and the San Francisco Bay
Area, but those cars still had human drivers or safety supervisors on board
as of mid-December.

Fundraising plans were first reported by The Information.

WATCH: 2025: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo leading
the pack
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