Waymo has closed an investment round of $5.6 billion, led by Alphabet, and contributed to by Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.
Waymo has promised to utilise this funding to “welcome more riders […] in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and in Austin and Atlanta,” and to continue advancing their AI-powered autonomous driving system, Waymo Driver.
Waymo declined to report how much investment each company contributed to the 10-digit total.
“While AI is only just beginning to capture the public imagination, Waymo has been working to bring its endless possibilities to the world of physical transportation for years,” said Egon Durban, Co-CEO, Silver Lake. “The Waymo Driver leads in earning trust by safely actualizing the value and potential of AI through cutting-edge research, practical solutions, and a vastly expanding scope and scale of real world experience.”
Through their partnership with Uber, Waymo has promised to begin to serve riders in Austin and in 2025.
The ride-hailing giant has also begun fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco, enabling them to provide over 100,000 paid weekly trips—a tenfold increase from last year.
The company notes they are broadening horizons by testing their systems in more complex environments through road trips to cities like Buffalo, New York, and Washington, D.C.
