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Waymo’s acceleration over the previous 18 months is plain. The Alphabet-owned self-driving firm now operates business robotaxi providers in six markets, together with the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. It has plans to develop its fleet of driverless taxicabs this yr to greater than a dozen new cities internationally, together with London and Tokyo.
And now it has $16 billion to gasoline that growth. Is it sufficient?
Speaking to a couple of business watchers, the reply saved touchdown in the squishy “type of” and “it relies upon” territory.
First the bull case. Alphabet is clearly dedicated to making certain Waymo’s success; the mum or dad firm is, and continues to be, the main investor. Which suggests Waymo isn’t uncovered like different AV startups that all of the sudden misplaced funding after their backers (typically legacy automakers) bought skittish or pivoted.
Its ridership and autonomous miles pushed stats are additionally exploding and can possible proceed in that trajectory except it is derailed by regulators. (Waymo supplies 400,000 rides each week throughout six main U.S. metropolitan areas, and in 2025 alone, it greater than tripled its annual quantity to 15 million rides.)
This doesn’t assure success, although, particularly if the gauge is set to profitability. Waymo nonetheless should remedy a number of issues, together with value and rising consideration from regulators (the firm’s chief security officer simply testified in a Senate Commerce hearing). If Waymo needs to merely be the licensor of its AV tech, it would have to transfer away from being the operator, which implies giving up some management. That’s arduous with a nascent expertise underneath scrutiny.
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June 23, 2026
And whereas a few of you’ll combat me on this, it additionally lacks the in-house manufacturing that Tesla has. Sure, Waymo has automotive companions. Nevertheless it doesn’t include the similar monetary leverage or capability to drive down prices with scale.
Disagree? Ship your argument to my electronic mail at [email protected].
Just a little fowl
The buyers behind the now-defunct EV startup Canoo have been all the time mysterious — in truth, they have been solely revealed as a part of a lawsuit. Six years in the past, I obtained a tip to look into one among them particularly: David Stern. He had connections to Prince Andrew however was in any other case a ghost.
He was on my thoughts, although, as the Division of Justice began releasing its information on Jeffrey Epstein. My curiosity as to whether or not he would flip up in the paperwork was rapidly overwhelmed by the proven fact that he was, in truth, a detailed enterprise accomplice of the convicted intercourse offender. He introduced Epstein funding alternatives from round the world, and particularly, pitched him on investing in Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, and Canoo throughout the go-go days of mobility funding. Read my story on Stern and Epstein’s relationship and the way mobility startups have been as soon as in the combine.
— Sean O’Kane
Bought a tip for us? Electronic mail Kirsten Korosec at [email protected] or my Sign at kkorosec.07, or electronic mail Sean O’Kane at [email protected].
Offers!
Autonomous automobile expertise is about extra than simply robotaxis — it is a troublesome and expensive enterprise that solely a handful of well-capitalized firms like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox are pursuing. Many startup founders are making use of the AV programs they’ve developed to different use circumstances, together with off-road protection, trucking, forklifts, mining, and building. Traders, anxious about lacking out on the AV occasion, are leaping into these sectors.
Bedrock Robotics is the newest instance of investor curiosity. The Silicon Valley autonomous automobile expertise startup, based by veterans of Waymo and Section, are creating a self-driving system that may be retrofitted onto building gear. And it simply raised $270 million in Sequence B funding co-led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Different buyers embody Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s enterprise capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures, and others.
Bedrock raised greater than $350 million in a short while (the firm was shaped in 2024). And whereas that may not look like quite a bit in contrast to the measurement of some seed rounds in the AI labs sector, it reveals cash is flowing into bodily AI startups. I anticipate extra deal move; importantly I anticipate the startups centered on sensible functions of automated driving programs to appeal to expertise — if they’ll afford them. Bedrock, for example, employed Vincent Gonguet, who beforehand led AI security and alignment at Meta for all Llama fashions, as its head of analysis. It additionally employed John Chu away from Waymo.
Maintain a watch out for my interview with Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman.
Different offers that bought my consideration this week …
German electrical motor maker Additive Drives raised €25 million ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Companions.
Autonomous underwater autos startup Apeiron Labs closed a $9.5 million Sequence A spherical led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Administration Planetary Well being, and S2G Investments. Meeting Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital participated.
GoCab, the African mobility fintech startup, raised a $45 million financing spherical comprising $15 million in fairness and $30 million in debt. The fairness spherical was co-led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mitra EV, a business EV fleet firm in Los Angeles, raised $27 million in financing, together with fairness funding from lead investor Extremely Capital and a credit score facility from S2G Investments.
Overland AI, a Seattle-based developer of self-driving programs designed for navy operations, raised $100 million in a spherical led by 8VC. Different buyers included Point72 Ventures, Ascend Enterprise Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Fairness Companions, and StepStone Group.
Plug, the used EV market, raised $20 million in a Sequence A led by Lightspeed with participation from Impress and present buyers Autotech Ventures, Leap Ahead Ventures, and Renn International.
R3 Robotics, a European startup that wishes to automate the disassembly of EV programs at scale, raised €20 million ($23.6 million) together of grants and enterprise funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Sequence A funding was co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. Oetker Assortment, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and present shareholders, together with BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT City Mobility additionally participated.
Skyryse, an El Segundo, California-based aviation automation startup, has raised greater than $300 million in a Sequence C funding. The spherical, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushes its valuation to $1.15 billion. Different buyers embody Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm, ArrowMark Companions, Atreides Administration LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Group, Sturdy Capital Companions, Constructive Sum, Qatar Funding Authority, RCM Personal Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Administration, and Woodline Companions.
Notable reads and different tidbits
China has banned hid electronically actuated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, printed by China’s Ministry of Business and Data Know-how, says all new automobiles bought in the nation should have mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There is chatter that Europe might quickly observe.
Uber continues to make strikes designed to make it aggressive in the autonomous automobile sector. The corporate has promoted Balaji Krishnamurthy, its VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to be its CFO. This might not appear related to AVs, however it is. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the firm’s autonomous ride-hailing partnerships and has a board seat at AV firm Waabi. Throughout the firm’s This autumn name, he talked about AVs, saying the firm would make investments capital in its AV software program companions, work with AV makers by investing fairness or by way of offtake agreements, and “assist our AV infrastructure companions.”
In the meantime, a high-profile lawsuit in opposition to Uber has delivered a blended verdict for the ride-hailing firm, which was sued after a lady alleged she was raped by her Uber driver in November 2023. A jury decided Uber was liable as an obvious agent of the driver and awarded $8.5 million to the plaintiff. The jury rejected claims that Uber was chargeable for negligence or design defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who emailed TechCrunch a press release, stated the “verdict affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider security. We are going to proceed to put security at the coronary heart of every part we do.” Uber plans to attraction the choice.
Yet one more factor …
Final week in our publication, we did a ballot asking what the title or ticker of Elon Musk’s mixed supercompany ought to be. Thanks to those that emailed their strategies, a lot of which had area themes, like Galactic X (nice one). As for the ballot, the majority picked plain ol’ X.
That is sensible, contemplating Musk has typically talked, and posted, about X, the every part app. About 50% voted for X, whereas 20.7% picked ELON, 17.2% chosen SpaceAI, and 12.1% selected K2, a reference to one of the corporate entities created in January.
My decide? I feel it would in the end be X, and the firm will embody extra than simply SpaceX and xAI.
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Disclaimer: This article is sourced from external platforms. OverBeta has not independently verified the information. Readers are advised to verify details before relying on them.
