Waymo Raises $16B Funding at $126B Valuation to Accelerate Global Robotaxi Expansion
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, announced it has raised a $16 billion funding round, valuing the company at $126 billion post-money, marking Alphabet’s latest move to fuel Waymo’s continued expansion into additional markets.
The new valuation represents more than double Waymo’s valuation following its October 2024 Series C round, in which the company raised $5.6 billion at a $45 billion valuation, alongside Alphabet’s $5 billion multiyear investment commitment.
In a company blog post, co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov stated:
“This milestone is built on a foundation of safety that is now statistically superior to human driving. We are no longer proving a concept; we are scaling a commercial reality.”
The latest funding round was led by Alphabet, alongside existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price, with new participants such as Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Alphabet-backed GV. Alphabet remains the majority investor, according to the company.
Waymo said the new capital will enable it to move “with unprecedented velocity while maintaining industry-leading safety standards,” as it focuses on global scale, expanding the Waymo Driver to more cities across the U.S. and internationally.
Waymo’s robotaxi service currently operates in Austin, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Miami, and the company reported 15 million trips in 2025.
In 2026, Waymo plans to launch services in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, and Washington, as well as expand internationally to London, its first overseas market.
The rapid expansion comes alongside challenges, including a software recall issued in December following reports that Waymo vehicles illegally passed school buses in Texas, and an ongoing NHTSA investigation into a collision involving a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California.
