Waymo
Autonomous driving company majority owned by Alphabet. It began as Google's self-driving car project in 2009 and runs the Waymo One robotaxi service in US cities, with launches announced in London, Tokyo, Toronto and Madrid.
Industry: Autonomous driving and robotaxi services | Location: United States | Founded: 2009
About Waymo
Waymo develops autonomous driving technology, which it calls the Waymo Driver, and operates a fully driverless ride-hailing service. Its careers page says it is headquartered in California and lists offices in six US cities, including Mountain View and San Francisco, and in London, Oxford, Taipei and Warsaw. Alphabet is its majority investor.
The company began as Google's self-driving car project in January 2009, originally led by Sebastian Thrun, and was set up as a separate company under Alphabet in 2016. Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov are co-chief executives, having taken over from John Krafcik in 2021.
Waymo describes the Waymo Driver as combining lidar, cameras and radar with an onboard computer that uses AI to recognise objects, predict the movements of other road users and plan routes. The sensors are fitted to Jaguar I-PACE vehicles. Its site lists Uber and DoorDash as network partners, Hyundai and Magna among automotive partners, and Moove, Flexdrive, GO and Nihon Kotsu as fleet partners.
Waymo launched its Waymo One service in metro Phoenix in 2018 and later added San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2025 it added Austin and Atlanta, where rides are booked through Uber. It opened Houston to all riders in August 2026. In October 2026 it announced plans for the Madrid region and Toronto, where it aims to welcome first riders in 2028.
Waymo's first external round in 2020 reached $3.2 billion, led by Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Mubadala Investment Company. It raised $2.5 billion in 2021 and, according to Fortune, $5.6 billion in 2024. In February 2026 it raised $16 billion at a post-money valuation of $126 billion, led by Dragoneer, DST Global and Sequoia Capital, with Mubadala Capital among the investors. In October 2026 it closed a $5 billion term loan, its first debt financing.
In February 2026 Waymo said it had provided 15 million rides in 2025 and more than 20 million in total. In September 2026 it reported over 270 million autonomous miles, and its October 2026 loan announcement said it had launched in its fifteenth US city.
Leadership
- Tekedra Mawakana, Co-Chief Executive Officer
- Dmitri Dolgov, Co-Chief Executive Officer
- Steve Fieler, Chief Financial Officer
- Saswat Panigrahi, Chief Product Officer
- Mauricio Peña, Chief Safety Officer
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