Waymo to expand to 20+ cities after $16 billion financing round

Alphabet's Waymo just raised a ton of cash to finance massive expansion of its self-driving taxi fleet to over 20 more cities.

In a blog post Monday, Waymo said it raised a $16 billion investment, valuing the company at $126 billion. The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, and included a who's who of investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Mubadala Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.

The new capital will be used to scale Waymo to a "commercial reality," which includes expansion to more than 20 additional cities in 2026, including Tokyo and London.

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Incidentally, a Waymo was recently spotted testing the waters in London, anecdotally annoying drivers as it was one of the few vehicles actually obeying speed limits.

The company recently kicked off its robotaxi operation in Miami and expanded San Francisco coverage to include the San Francisco International Airport.

While Waymo has been slowly rolling out its self-driving taxis in a small number of U.S. cities for years, it's been expanding far more rapidly in recent months. This probably has something to do with Tesla, which launched its own robotaxi service in several U.S. cities, prompting CEO Elon Musk to proclaim that Waymo "never really had a chance" in the robotaxi race. Whether that's true remains to be seen, but at least now Waymo has a big pile of cash it can use to increase its chances.