Waymo announced a $16 billion funding round on February 2, valuing Alphabet's robotaxi unit at $126 billion post-money. Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital led the round, with Alphabet maintaining majority ownership by contributing approximately $12-13 billion of the total.
The funds target international expansion - London and Tokyo by year-end, plus growth across 11+ US cities where Waymo already operates. The company claims 20 million rides completed and superior safety metrics compared to human drivers.
The economics tell a more complex story. Waymo currently generates $350 million in annual recurring revenue, up from $180 million in 2025. The valuation assumes the company reaches $2.5 billion in revenue by 2030 - a 7x increase in four years. That's aggressive for a business still building fleet infrastructure and testing regulatory waters in new markets.
Recent operational challenges highlight the infrastructure dependencies. During January's San Francisco power outages, Waymo vehicles stopped at intersections - they rely on cloud connectivity and HD mapping that Tesla's vision-based approach doesn't require. The Miami launch proceeded, but the San Francisco incident exposes vulnerability in the technical architecture.
The robotaxi unit economics remain unclear. Waymo hasn't disclosed cost per mile, fleet utilization rates by city, or break-even timelines per vehicle. Industry analysis suggests autonomous fleet maintenance and remote monitoring add costs that offset the no-driver advantage, particularly in early deployment phases.
This is Waymo's second major raise in 18 months - they closed a $5.6 billion Series C at $45 billion valuation in 2024. The $81 billion valuation jump reflects investor confidence in the category, but the fundamentals haven't changed proportionally. Revenue grew, but so did capital requirements for international expansion.
For transport authorities and mobility planners in APAC markets: Waymo's London launch provides a test case for how autonomous vehicles integrate with established public transport systems and regulatory frameworks. The technical dependencies - cloud connectivity, HD mapping infrastructure - matter more in dense urban environments than Phoenix suburbs where the technology matured.
The real question: can robotaxi economics work at scale before cheaper alternatives (Tesla's vision-based system, traditional ride-hailing with improving driver economics) close the gap? We'll see. This $16 billion round gives Waymo runway to prove it, but the clock is running.