It’s sinking another $5 billion into its self-driving car effort, Waymo.
The investment was disclosed on the second-quarter earnings call by Ruth Porat, the outgoing chief financial officer of Alphabet. She said that Waymo represented a case study of how Alphabet remained committed to long-term investment in next-generation technologies.
The “multi year” funding will be put toward the ongoing growth and development of Waymo as it continues to try and corner the market on autonomous driving. An update on this investment will be shared in Alphabet’s next quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Alphabet’s “Other Bets” segment, including Waymo, surged to $365 million from $285 million at the quarterly level the previous year. Losses for the unit grew to $1.13 billion from $813 million a year earlier.
Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana outlined enormous progress, where Waymo is now offering 50,000 paid rides per week to users mainly in San Francisco and Phoenix. Waymo has done 2 million rides to date, opened its service in San Francisco by taking off the waitlist off the app, and increased its operations dramatically.
Waymo, since the first external funding round way back in 2020, has raised a sum of $2.25 billion and tacked on another $2.5 billion in 2021. The investors since then have included heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Fidelity Management & Research Company.
Alphabet increases stake in Waymo after recent autonomous vehicle project delays at competitors Multiple delays plagued a self-driving shuttle, Origin, in production for General Motors’ Cruise. Delaying plans from August, Tesla pushed back the reveal of its CyberCab robotaxi to October 10.
Mawakana was excited about Alphabet’s massive commitment, saying, “We are grateful for their humongous vote of confidence in our team and for recognizing the tremendous progress we have made with our technology, product, and commercialization effort.”.
Conclusion
Alphabet’s $5 billion investment in Waymo underscores its very serious commitment to autonomous vehicle technology. This funding is going to definitely provide the competitive edge that Waymo needs in the self-driving sector, especially against those competitors who lately have been running behind schedule and experiencing mishaps. With increasing revenues and quick growth according to operational milestones, Waymo is sure to have a strong impact on the future of transportation through continued innovation and targeted long-term growth in new technologies that Alphabet has outlined.
