Waymo

$16B financing at a $126B valuation accompanied Waymo’s 2026 expansion push, even as construction-zone failures forced it to pull roughly 4,000 robotaxis from highways.

Who they are

Waymo is a robotaxi operator whose coverage centers on deploying driverless passenger service in U.S. cities, notably Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. It is closely tied to Alphabet and appears both as an operational benchmark for newer autonomous-vehicle services and as a provider building consumer-facing offerings such as Waymo One and Waymo Premier.

The recent arc

Coverage reached its all-time quarterly high in 2025Q4, driven by the San Francisco blackout interruption and subsequent service resumption, then remained elevated through 2026Q1 and Q2 as the story shifted from city-by-city rollout to the demands of scale. Bloomberg reported in February that Waymo had raised $16B at a $126B valuation, was making more than 400,000 rides a week, and planned broader U.S. and UK expansion; CNBC reported its Miami launch as a sixth market in January.

The tension

The central tension is whether Waymo can convert a lead in driverless operations into reliable, scalable transportation while its edge is tested by unusual road conditions and rival distribution. Tesla’s Austin service is repeatedly framed as trailing Waymo because it uses safety drivers and far fewer vehicles, while Uber is both a former and current strategic counterparty: the companies have lobbied against each other over AV legislation, and quietly ended their Phoenix partnership in May as Uber prepared another autonomous-vehicle alliance there.

Why it matters

Waymo’s trajectory is a practical test of whether robotaxis can become durable urban transport rather than tightly bounded demonstrations. The expansion funding, rising passenger-mile share, new vehicle program with Zeekr, and membership product point toward a fuller service business, but the construction-zone withdrawal shows that operating coverage can be constrained by edge cases; how quickly those limits are resolved will shape its competitive advantage over Tesla and the leverage platforms such as Uber retain.

Related: Tesla · Uber · Alphabet · Phoenix · San Francisco · Filings: Waymo pulls its ~4K robotaxis from highways after finding 13+