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

Self-driving car institution Waymo is successful talks to rise $15 cardinal successful backing successful the caller year.

The robotaxi institution plans to rise billions from Alphabet, its genitor company, arsenic good arsenic extracurricular investors astatine a valuation arsenic precocious arsenic $110 billion, according to a idiosyncratic acquainted with the discussions.

The latest backing discussions are indicative of Waymo's presumption arsenic the person of the battalion successful the U.S. robotaxi market. The institution has been spending heavy to ramp up its fleet and proceed expanding to much regions. Waymo is present either operating its robotaxis, readying to motorboat work oregon starting to trial its vehicles successful 26 markets, successful the U.S. and abroad.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo volition "meaningfully" lend to Alphabet's financials arsenic soon arsenic 2027, CNBC reported Tuesday.  

If the Google sister institution winds up raising arsenic overmuch arsenic $15 billion, that would correspond much than treble the magnitude of its past funding round. That was a bid C circular of $5.6 cardinal astatine a $45 cardinal valuation, which closed successful October 2024. Alphabet had committed $5 cardinal successful a multiyear concern to Waymo astatine the time.

That circular was led by Alphabet alongside erstwhile 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 backing would spell toward expanding its robotaxi service.

Waymo presently serves paid rides to the nationalist successful the Austin, San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles markets.

Earlier this month, CNBC reported that Waymo crossed an estimated 450,000 play paid rides, and the institution successful December said it had served 14 cardinal trips in 2025, putting it connected gait to extremity the twelvemonth astatine much than 20 cardinal trips full since launching successful 2020.

The institution plans to unfastened work adjacent twelvemonth successful Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego and Washington, D.C. Waymo besides announced plans to motorboat its work in London in 2026, which volition people the company's archetypal overseas work region.

Amazon's Zoox this twelvemonth began offering escaped driverless rides to the nationalist astir the Las Vegas Strip and definite San Francisco neighborhoods. Tesla launched a Robotaxi-branded work successful Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, but those cars inactive had quality drivers oregon information supervisors connected committee arsenic of mid-December.

The fundraising plans were archetypal reported by Bloomberg. 

WATCH: 2025: The twelvemonth that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo starring the pack