Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is set to invest $5 billion in its self-driving car unit Waymo.
“This new round of funding will enable Waymo to continue to build the world’s leading autonomous driving company,” the outgoing finance chief Ruth Porat of Alphabet said on the eve of the company’s second-quarter earnings call. He further stressed that Waymo is an important example of the company’s long-standing investments.
Porat announced the “multiyear” investment on the call and also said that more information would be made available in due time.
Waymo, the bet Alphabet is taking has turned up $365 million in quarterly revenue, up from $285 million a year ago. However, the company also had losses of $1.13 billion, a steep amount than last year.
The CEO Sundar Pichai said that Waymo Taxi provides 50000 weekly paid trips to users in San Francisco and the Phoenix area. It has also completed 2 million trips to date. Waymo also removed the waitlist and opened the services to all San Francisco users.
Waymo raised $2.5 billion in 2020 in its first external round of funding. Then, in 2021, the company raised another $2.5 billion in a fresh round that included investors like Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and more.
Waymo CEO has expressed gratitude to Alphabet to show its vote of confidence.
“Alphabet has committed up to $5B to @Waymo. We are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts.”
Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment Policy.
