SAN FRANCISCO, February 3, 2026, 09:11 PST
- Waymo raised $16 billion in a funding round valuing it at $126 billion post-money
- Dragoneer, DST Global and Sequoia led the round; Alphabet remains the majority owner
- Waymo is expanding its paid, fully driverless robotaxi service as rivals circle and regulators probe safety
Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo said it raised $16 billion in fresh financing that values the company at $126 billion on a post-money basis — the value after the new cash is added. The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital, with other investors including Mubadala Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and T. Rowe Price. Reuters
The size of the round matters because robotaxis are one of the costliest bets in commercial AI, with companies trying to move from demos to daily trips under tighter safety scrutiny. Waymo is also pulling further ahead in a U.S. market where most rivals still rely on safety drivers, limited routes, or free pilot rides.
It also lands as investors look for proof that “AI in the real world” can turn into revenue, not just research papers and glossy videos. Waymo is already selling rides, and its funding gives it more room to buy vehicles, build fleets and push into new cities before the field gets crowded.
Waymo’s co-CEOs, Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, wrote that the company would use the money to accelerate expansion in the United States and abroad. In the same post, Sequoia partner Konstantine Buhler said Waymo had “moved beyond research milestones to achieve operational excellence,” while Dragoneer partner Jared Middleman said the firm believed Waymo’s lead “will endure.” Waymo
Waymo said it more than tripled its annual volume in 2025 to 15 million rides and is now providing more than 400,000 rides a week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas. It operates more than 2,500 robotaxis and is preparing to launch in at least 20 additional cities in 2026, The Verge reported. Theverge
The new valuation is a sharp jump from its last external financing in 2024, when it was valued at about $45 billion, according to data cited by Reuters from Tracxn. Alphabet spun Waymo out of Google’s self-driving project in 2016.
Waymo is pitching scale as its edge. The company says it has logged 127 million miles of fully autonomous operation and claims a steep reduction in serious injury crashes compared with human driving, without detailing the underlying methods in the blog post.
Competition is building anyway. Tesla has made robotaxis a core priority as it leans away from a pure electric-vehicle story, and Amazon’s Zoox has been offering free robotaxi rides to the public in Las Vegas and parts of San Francisco, Reuters reported.
Money doesn’t fix the ugly parts of the business. Robotaxis require pricey sensors and onboard computing, and operators still monitor trips remotely, with fleets needing charging, cleaning and sensor calibration — a cost stack that can swell long before profit shows up.
A bigger risk sits with safety and regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last week it opened an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in California, a reminder that one incident can freeze expansion plans or invite tougher rules.
Waymo did not give a detailed rollout calendar for its next markets, beyond saying it is laying the groundwork for more than 20 cities in 2026 and pointing to international targets such as Tokyo and London. The cash is ample, but the pace will still hinge on permits, public tolerance, and whether the tech behaves in messy streets as well as it does in controlled ones.
