Waymo co-CEOs (LR): Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov
waymo
Self-driving car company Waymo is in talks to raise $15 billion in funding in the new year.
Robotaxi company plans to raise billions of dollars from alphabetThe company’s parent company and other outside investors value the deal at $110 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The latest funding discussions demonstrate Waymo’s position as the collective leader in the U.S. robotaxi market. The company is spending heavily to expand its fleet and continue expanding into more regions. Waymo currently operates robotaxis and has plans to launch or begin testing vehicles in 26 markets in the U.S. and abroad.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo will contribute “meaningfully” to Alphabet’s finances as early as 2027, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
If Google’s sister company ends up raising $15 billion, it would more than double its previous funding round. This was a $5.6 billion Series C round at a valuation of $45 billion, closing in October 2024. At the time, Alphabet had committed to a $5 billion, multi-year investment in Waymo.
The round was led by Alphabet, with 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 funds would be used to expand the robotaxi service.
Waymo currently offers 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’s weekly paid rides had topped an estimated 450,000, and the company announced in December that it was on pace to serve 14 million trips in 2025 and reach more than 20 million total trips by the end of the year since its launch in 2020.
The company plans to launch the service next year in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., and Waymo also announced plans to launch in London, its first international service area, in 2026.
Amazon’s Earlier this year, Zoox began offering free driverless rides to the public around the Las Vegas Strip and parts of San Francisco. tesla launched Robotaxi-branded services in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, but as of mid-December, those vehicles still had human drivers or safety supervisors.
The funding plan was first reported by Bloomberg.
WATCH: 2025: The year robotaxis go mainstream, with Waymo leading the way.
