Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company, has raised $16 billion as it plans to expand its driverless taxi fleet to more than a dozen new cities internationally this year, including London and Tokyo.
Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital led the financing round, which now values Waymo at $126 billion, the company said in a blog post 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 Capital, as well as Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price. Other investors included BDT & MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity Management & Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital and Temasek.
Waymo said the funds would be used to fuel its growth, which has accelerated over the past year and shows no signs of slowing down. The company recently secured rides to and from San Francisco International Airport and has expanded its robotaxi 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 moved slowly, testing its self-driving vehicle technology on public roads in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area and offering occasional public or media demonstrations. In 2016, it took its first geographic leap and began testing in Phoenix, where it eventually retired its human safety driver outside of vehicles. Phoenix became Waymo’s first robot taxi marketplace, where the public could hail driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
Waymo stepped on the accelerator in August 2023 after receiving the final permit needed to operate a robotaxi service – and charge for rides – in California. It started limited service in San Francisco, then expanded to much of the greater Bay Area, Silicon Valley and, more recently, the highways that connect the region’s dozens of cities. It has also expanded to Los Angeles. The company launched in Austin and Atlanta in 2025 through a partnership with Uber. The year started with expansion to Miami.
The geographic expansion resulted in 400,000 trips offered each week in six major metropolitan areas in the United States. The company said that in 2025 alone, it more than tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides, surpassing 20 million lifetime rides to date.
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“We are no longer proving a concept,” the company wrote in its blog. “We are adapting a business reality by laying the foundation for ride-sharing operations in more than 20 additional cities in 2026, including Tokyo and London.”
Rapid expansion has also led to increased scrutiny and criticism as Waymo’s robotaxis have made missteps and the technology creates problems for some residents.
Some robot taxis have exhibited dangerous behavior, particularly in school zones. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defect Investigation and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have open investigations on the illegal behavior of Waymo robo-taxis around school buses. NHTSA also launched another investigation last week after a Waymo robo-taxi. hit a child near a school. The child, slightly injured, was hit at around 10 km/h.
