A Waymo car exits a charging lot on Jan. 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Photographs
Alphabet‘s self-driving automotive unit Waymo on Monday stated it raised a $16 billion funding spherical that values the corporate at $126 billion “post-money.”
The brand new funding is the newest transfer by Alphabet to fund Waymo’s continued enlargement to extra markets.
The brand new valuation is greater than double what Waymo notched after its final funding spherical in October 2024. That was a collection C spherical of $5.6 billion at a $45 billion valuation. Alphabet dedicated $5 billion in a multiyear funding to Waymo on the time.
“​​This milestone is constructed on a basis of security that’s now statistically superior to human driving,” Waymo co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a weblog publish. “We’re not proving an idea; we’re scaling a industrial actuality.”
The newest funding spherical was led by Alphabet alongside earlier backers, together with Andreessen Horowitz, Constancy, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger International and T. Rowe Worth. The brand new spherical contains extra traders akin to Dragoneer Funding Group, DST International, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Alphabet-owned funding agency GV.
Alphabet itself is the “majority investor,” in accordance with the weblog.
The brand new capital will assist the corporate transfer “with unprecedented velocity, whereas sustaining our industry-leading security requirements,” Waymo stated. “Our focus is now on international scale, bringing the security and magic of the Waymo Driver to much more cities this 12 months throughout america and worldwide.”
CNBC beforehand reported that the Google sister firm was set to boost not less than $15 billion at a valuation of $110 billion.
Waymo’s robotaxi service presently operates within the markets of Austin, the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Miami, the place it started providing service in January.
In 2026, Waymo plans to open service in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego and Washington. It additionally plans to develop to London, its first worldwide market.
The corporate has begun dealing with challenges because it quickly expands.
Waymo issued a software program recall in December for its automobiles after Texas officers stated the robotaxis illegally handed college buses not less than 19 instances because the begin of the college 12 months, and final month, Waymo struck a baby close to an elementary college in Santa Monica, California. The incident is below investigation by the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration.
WATCH: 2025: The 12 months that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo main the pack
Source link
#Waymo #pronounces #billion #funding
