Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous car firm, has raised $16 billion because it plans to develop its fleet of driverless taxicabs this yr to greater than a dozen new cities internationally, together with London and Tokyo.
Dragoneer Funding Group, DST World, and Sequoia Capital led the funding spherical, which now values Waymo at $126 billion, the corporate said in a blog post Monday. Mother or father firm Alphabet supported the spherical and maintained its place as majority investor.
The spherical additionally included vital investments from Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Capital, in addition to Bessemer Enterprise Companions, Silver Lake, Tiger World, and T. Rowe Worth. Extra buyers included BDT & MSD Companions, CapitalG, Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital, and Temasek.
Waymo stated the funds will probably be used to gas its development, which has accelerated over the previous yr and doesn’t seem like slowing. The corporate lately secured rides to and from San Francisco Worldwide Airport and has expanded its robotaxi service all through Northern California and a number of other main metropolitan areas within the U.S. together with Los Angeles, Austin, and Miami.
For years, the previous Google self-driving undertaking slowly progressed ahead, testing its autonomous car tech on public roads in Silicon Valley and the Bay Space and offering the occasional public or media demo. In 2016, it made its first geographic leap ahead and started testing in Phoenix, the place it will definitely pulled its human security driver out of the automobiles. Phoenix turned Waymo’s first robotaxi market, through which the general public might hail driverless Chrysler Pacific minivans.
Waymo pushed down the accelerator in August 2023 after receiving the ultimate mandatory allow to function a robotaxi service — and cost for rides — in California. It launched a restricted service in San Francisco, later increasing to a lot of the higher Bay Space, Silicon Valley, and extra lately to the freeways that join the handfuls of cities within the space. It additionally expanded to Los Angeles. The corporate launched in Austin and Atlanta in 2025 by a partnership with Uber. It kicked off the yr by increasing to Miami.
The geographic enlargement has translated to 400,000 rides offered each week throughout six main U.S. metropolitan areas. The corporate stated in 2025 alone, it greater than tripled its annual quantity to fifteen million rides, surpassing 20 million lifetime rides to this point.
Techcrunch occasion
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
“We’re not proving an idea,” the corporate wrote in its weblog submit. “We’re scaling a business actuality, laying the groundwork for ride-hailing operations in over 20 further cities in 2026, together with Tokyo and London.”
The fast enlargement has additionally led to elevated scrutiny and criticism as Waymo’s robotaxis have made missteps and the know-how creates issues for some residents.
Some robotaxis have exhibited harmful behaviors notably at school zones. The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration’s Workplace of Defects Investigation in addition to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) have opened investigations into the unlawful habits of Waymo robotaxis round faculty buses. NHTSA additionally launched one other investigation final week after a Waymo robotaxi hit a toddler close to a college. The kid, who sustained minnor accidents, was struck at about 6 mph.
