Waymo bags $16bn as robotaxi push heads for London and Tokyo
- Perry Richardson
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Waymo has raised $16 billion in a new investment round, valuing the company at $126 billion post money, as it prepares for a significant expansion of its autonomous ride hailing operations in the US and overseas.
The funding, announced on 2 February, was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Mubadala Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
Waymo said the round also included backing from CapitalG, Fidelity Management and Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Temasek and others. The business remains majority owned by Alphabet, which continues to provide long term financial support.
Waymo said the new capital would be used to scale its fleet, expand internationally and support entry into more than 20 additional cities during 2026, naming London and Tokyo among planned markets. “This capital underscores that the age of autonomous mobility at scale has arrived, and Waymo is leading the way,” co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov said in a statement.
Robotaxi operator valued at $126bn as it plans launches in more than 20 new cities including London and Tokyo
The company linked its expansion plans to what it described as a strong safety record from large scale commercial operations. “Across 127 million miles of fully autonomous operation, we have achieved a 90 per cent reduction in serious injury crashes,” Waymo said, adding that its technology is “never affected by the leading causes of road tragedy, including distraction, impairment, and fatigue”.
Waymo also highlighted sharp growth in paid ride volumes. “In 2025 alone, we more than tripled our annual volume to 15 million rides, surpassing 20 million lifetime rides to date,” the company said. It currently provides more than 400,000 paid rides per week across six major US metropolitan areas and said it is no longer proving a concept but scaling a commercial service.
Investors backing the round pointed to Waymo’s shift from development to execution. Konstantine Buhler, a partner at Sequoia Capital, said Waymo had “moved beyond research milestones to achieve operational excellence, tripling its weekly paid rides in just one year while maintaining customer delight”. He added that the company was “leveraging its compounding data advantage to usher in a new era of transportation”.
DST Global co-founder Saurabh Gupta said autonomous driving was already delivering measurable benefits. “Waymo has brought autonomous driving from science fiction to reality. It’s saving lives already, with significantly fewer serious injury crashes compared to human drivers,” he said, adding that wider deployment would “boost productivity and accessibility for millions while improving road safety worldwide”.
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