Waymo raises $16B to scale robotaxi fleet internationally

Waymo, the self-driving car unit owned by Alphabet, has raised $16 billion as it prepares to expand its fleet of driverless taxis significantly. The company plans to launch robotaxi operations in more than a dozen new cities internationally this year, including London and Tokyo.

The funding round, led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, values Waymo at $126 billion, according to a blog post the company published on Monday. Alphabet also participated in the round, maintaining its position as Waymo’s majority shareholder.

The round included additional significant investments from Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Capital, as well as backing from Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. Other investors participating in the round included BDT & MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity Management & Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital, and Temasek.

Waymo said the new capital will be used to support its rapid growth, which has accelerated over the past year and appears to be slowing. The company recently secured permission to provide rides to and from San Francisco International Airport and has expanded its robotaxi operations throughout Northern California and several major U.S. metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Austin, and Miami.

For years, Waymo — which originated as a self-driving car project within Google — made slow, deliberate progress, testing its autonomous vehicle technology on public roads in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, while offering limited public and media demonstrations. In 2016, the company took its first significant geographic step forward by beginning testing in Phoenix, where it eventually removed human safety drivers from its vehicles. Phoenix became Waymo’s first fully operational robotaxi market, allowing members of the public to hail driverless Chrysler Pacifica vehicles.

Waymo significantly accelerated its rollout in August 2023 after receiving the final regulatory approval required to operate a paid robotaxi service in California. The company launched a limited service in San Francisco, later expanding coverage across much of the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and eventually onto the region’s major freeways. It also expanded operations into Los Angeles. In 2025, Waymo launched services in Austin and Atlanta through a partnership with Uber, and began the year by expanding into Miami.

This rapid geographic expansion has translated into roughly 400,000 rides per week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas. Waymo said that in 2025 alone, it more than tripled its annual ride volume to 15 million trips, bringing its total lifetime rides to more than 20 million.

“We are no longer proving a concept,” Waymo wrote in its blog post. “We are scaling a commercial reality, laying the groundwork for ride-hailing operations in over 20 additional cities in 2026, including Tokyo and London.”

The company’s fast growth has also brought increased scrutiny and criticism. Waymo’s robotaxis have faced complaints about operational errors and behaviour that some residents say raises safety concerns.

Several incidents have involved robotaxis behaving dangerously in school zones. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation and the National Transportation Safety Board have opened investigations into Waymo robotaxis allegedly engaging in illegal behaviour around school buses. The NHTSA also launched another investigation last week after a Waymo robotaxi struck a child near a school. The child sustained minor injuries and was hit at an estimated speed of about 6 miles per hour.