Sixteen billion dollars. For context, that's more than the GDP of half the countries on Earth, and it's going into self-driving cars that still need remote human monitors.
Google's self-driving car unit Waymo has raised $16 billion in its latest funding round, reaching a valuation of $110 billion. It's one of the largest funding rounds in tech history and signals continued belief in autonomous vehicles despite years of unfulfilled promises.
But here's what's different from previous autonomous vehicle hype cycles: Waymo actually has cars on the road, giving paid rides, in real cities.
The round was "three times oversubscribed." Alphabet contributed over three-quarters of the amount, with Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and Dragoneer Investment Group joining existing backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala.
The valuation more than doubled from $45 billion in October 2024 — a remarkable jump that suggests investors believe Waymo has crossed some critical threshold.
And the numbers back that up. Annual recurring revenue grew to over $350 million in 2025, up from Bank of America's earlier projection of $50-75 million for 2024. The company operates robotaxi services across six U.S. cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, Austin, and Atlanta.
They've logged over 125 million fully autonomous miles. They expect to host one million weekly rides in 2026, up from 250,000 in spring 2024. That's not a pilot program. That's a business.
Expansion plans for 2026 include Detroit, Las Vegas, , , and — most notably — , their first international commercial deployment. They're also testing in .
