Waymo has successfully secured significant financial backing from investors, announcing a $5.6 billion “oversubscribed investment round.” The largest contribution came from Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Waymo is collaborating with Uber to expand its services to Austin and Atlanta by early next year and plans to utilize this new funding for these expansions. This latest financial support raises Waymo’s total fundraising to $11.1 billion, following previous rounds amounting to $5.5 billion in 2020 and 2021.
Currently, Waymo operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, providing a curbside transport service at Sky Harbor International Airport via its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company has also started offering fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.
The new investment will further enable Waymo to enhance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving platform suitable for various business applications. In its blog, Waymo indicated plans to support diverse business applications over time through Waymo One.
Alphabet made a $5 billion investment in July, which Alphabet’s Chief Financial Officer, Ruth Porat, described as a “multi-year investment.” As of July, Waymo’s driverless vehicle fleet had logged a total of 25 million miles, surpassing other companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before partnering with Waymo.
