Waymo Is Raising $15B. Why Tesla Has the Robo-Taxi Advantage.

A Waymo robotaxi in San Francisco, California on Dec. 8, 2025. The Alphabet-controlled robotaxi company complets more than 450,000 fully autonomous rides per week. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Key Points

• Waymo is reportedly raising an additional $15 billion in capital for expansion, valuing the company at up to $110 billion.
• Waymo completes over 450,000 fully autonomous rides weekly in five cities and plans to expand into a dozen more.
• Tesla can produce millions of cars annually with self-driving hardware. Waymo can count on Alphabet’s financial support.

The battle between Waymo and Tesla for control of the robo-taxi market is heating up. Both companies have some things in their favor.

On Tuesday, CNBC reported that self-driving company Waymo was raising an additional $15 billion in capital, valuing the company at up to $110 billion. Waymo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alphabet controls Waymo, but the tech giant has other investors in its robo-taxi business. The money would be used for expansion. Waymo operates in five cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta—and plans to expand soon into a dozen more, including New York, Miami, London, and Tokyo.

More cities mean more cars, which cost money. Cars are one advantage Tesla has over Waymo. Tesla can produce millions of cars a year, and each Tesla rolling off the assembly line has the hardware required to run its most advanced self-driving technology.

Waymo doesn’t take a back seat to Tesla, though. It completes more than 450,000 fully autonomous cab rides per week. Tesla still has safety monitors driving along with robo-taxi riders in Austin, Texas. What is more, Alphabet itself has the financial power to support Waymo’s expansion.

Waymo’s progress is impressive. Tesla bulls would counter that millions of Tesla vehicles on the road feed data to Tesla, helping the company train its cars to drive themselves.

Both companies’ self-driving efforts are impressive.

Exactly how the robo-taxi market will develop in the U.S. is hard to say. How fast will services roll out across the country? Who will own the cars? Who will insure the cars? How high will demand be? Will households eventually buy fewer cars and rely on AI-trained rolling robots to drive them around?

These are all important questions. What is more certain is that Tesla and Waymo will be two of the key players, whatever comes next.

Tesla stock lost 4.6% on Wednesday, but Waymo wasn’t the likely reason. The market was lower amid a sell-off in AI-related stocks.

Alphabet shares fell 3.2%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com