Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL  ) (GOOGL  ) self-driving car unit Waymo said on Monday it has raised $16 billion in a new funding round that values the company at about $126 billion, underpinning growing investor confidence in commercial autonomous vehicle services. The financing round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, with additional participation from Mubadala Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, T. Rowe Price, and other institutional investors, according to Waymo. Alphabet remains the majority shareholder.

Robotaxi Expansion Gets A Boost

The raise is one of the largest private investment rounds ever for an autonomous vehicle business, more than tripling Waymo's valuation from roughly $45 billion in 2024.

Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing service operates driverless "robotaxis" in six major U.S. metropolitan regions and provided about 15 million paid rides in 2025, nearly three times the previous year's volume, the company said. It currently logs roughly 400,000 weekly rides.

The company plans to use the capital to expand its fleet and operations into more than 20 new cities in 2026, including its first international markets, as it seeks to move beyond its existing U.S. footprint.

Waymo, which began as a Google project in 2009 and was spun out under Alphabet in 2016, remains one of the few companies offering paid robotaxi services without human safety drivers. It is widely viewed as the technical leader among U.S. robotaxi operators, ahead of rivals such as Amazon-backed (AMZN  ) Zoox and Tesla Inc. (TSLA  ), which is pursuing its own autonomous ride-hailing ambitions.

The latest funding round signals growing investor confidence in commercial robotaxi services, a sector that has struggled for years to move beyond pilot programs. Waymo continues to expand its operations, recently conducting robotaxi testing in London, as part of its planned expansion into Europe.