Waymo raises $16 billion to expand its taxi fleet internationally

Waymo, the self-driving vehicle company owned by Alphabet, has raised $16 billion as it plans to grow its fleet of self-driving taxis this year to more than a dozen new cities globally, including London and Tokyo.

Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital led the funding round, which now values ​​Waymo at $126 billion, the company said in a blog post on Monday. Parent company Alphabet supported the round and maintained its position as majority investor.

The round also included significant investments from Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Financial Investments, in addition to Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. Additional investors include BDT & MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity Management & Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital and Temasek.

Waymo said the funds will be used to support its growth, which has accelerated over the past year and does not appear to be slowing down. The company recently secured flights to and from San Francisco International Airport and expanded its robo-taxi service throughout Northern California and several major metropolitan areas in the United States including Los Angeles, Austin, and Miami.

For years, Google’s former self-driving project has been inching forward, testing self-driving vehicle technology on public roads in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and giving the occasional public or media demonstration. In 2016, it made its first geographic hop and began testing in Phoenix, where it eventually pulled a human safety driver out of vehicles. Phoenix has become Waymo’s first robo-taxi market, where the public can applaud driverless Chrysler Pacific minivans.

Waymo lowered the speed limit in August 2023 after receiving the final permit needed to operate a robotaxi service — and charge for rides — in California. It launched limited service in San Francisco, later expanding to most of the greater Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and most recently to highways connecting dozens of towns in the region. It also expanded to Los Angeles. The company launched in Austin and Atlanta in 2025 through a partnership with Uber. I started the year by expanding to Miami.

The geographic expansion has translated into 400,000 trips provided each week across six major metropolitan areas in the United States. The company said that in 2025 alone, its annual volume has more than tripled to 15 million trips, exceeding 20 million lifetime trips to date.

“We are no longer proving the concept,” the company wrote in its blog post. “We are expanding the commercial footprint, laying the foundation for passenger operations in more than 20 additional cities in 2026, including Tokyo and London.”

The rapid expansion has also led to increased scrutiny and criticism, as Waymo’s robotaxis have made mistakes and the technology has caused problems for some residents.

Some robotaxis have shown dangerous behavior, especially in school zones. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defect Investigation as well as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have opened investigations into the illegal behavior of Waymo robotaxis around school buses. NHTSA also launched another investigation last week after a Waymo robotaxi hit a child near a school. The child suffered minor injuries, as he was hit at a speed of 6 mph.