According to informed sources, after completing a new round of $5.6 billion financing last week,$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$Its self-driving taxi subsidiary, Waymo, now has a valuation exceeding $45 billion.

It is reported that Waymo announced the financing news last Friday, the company will use this capital to expand and promote the commercial application of Waymo Driver. However, Waymo did not disclose more details, such as Waymo's valuation, and how much stake Alphabet held in this round of financing. At the current boom in the self-driving car industry, people are speculating what level Waymo's valuation has reached.

In this oversubscribed Series C financing round, Alphabet still led the investment, other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T.Rowe Price among others.

The Series C financing will bring Waymo's total financing to $11.1 billion, with the previous two rounds of financing amounting to $3.2 billion and $2.5 billion respectively. In July this year, Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Alphabet, announced that they would provide Waymo with an investment of over $5 billion.

In addition to the capital feast in the self-driving race track in October, Waymo's oversubscription is also driven by its commercial success. Waymo currently provides over 0.1 million travel services to passengers every week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, more than doubling from May, and passengers can summon their self-driving taxis through the Waymo One app.

Next, Waymo will also launch self-driving taxi services with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. Waymo will continue to be primarily responsible for vehicle testing and operation, including roadside assistance and certain passenger support features.

Chris Ballard, Managing Director of Check Capital Management, commented that the new investors in Waymo are "not seeking quick turnover of funds", these companies can be said to be patient capital, hoping to achieve greater returns over a longer period of time.

In addition, Waymo faces competition in the USA, such as Tesla, Zoox under Amazon, and Cruise under General Motors. Recently, Tesla announced that its self-driving rental car, Cybercab, will achieve mass production in 2026, and the company will launch online car-hailing business in Texas and California in 2025.

Zoox's Chief Technology Officer, Jesse Levinson, stated on Wednesday that Zoox will launch dozens of self-driving rental cars in San Francisco and Las Vegas in the coming weeks, "By 2026, we will truly start mass production." Cruise suspended all its self-driving operations in the USA following an accident in San Francisco in October 2023.

Therefore, at present, Waymo is the most prominent self-driving car company in the USA, leading the industry.

Editor/ping