Waymo Reportedly Raising $16 Billion in Funding Round
Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company and subsidiary of Alphabet, is reportedly nearing the completion of a $16 billion funding round that would value the company at $110 billion, according to the Financial Times. The funding round includes significant investment from Alphabet, along with new investors Dragoneer, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. Existing backers Andreessen Horowitz and Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala are also participating.
More than three-fourths of the funding is expected to come from Alphabet, where Waymo was incubated as part of its "moonshot factory X," according to the Financial Times.
When contacted by TechCrunch, a Waymo spokesperson declined to comment directly on the financial details. "While we dont comment on private financial matters, our trajectory is clear: with over 20 million trips completed, we are focused on the safety-led operational excellence and continued expansion of our service," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The funding announcement comes as companies in the tech sector continue to innovate and expand. In Europe, January 2026 saw the emergence of five new unicorns, tech startups valued above $1 billion, according to TechCrunch. These companies, spanning from Belgium to Ukraine, secured funding rounds that pushed their valuations past the threshold.
Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, Indonesia lifted its ban on xAI's chatbot Grok, following similar moves by Malaysia and the Philippines, according to TechCrunch. The ban was initially imposed after Grok was used to generate a large number of nonconsensual, sexualized images on X, including images of real women and minors. Analyses by The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate indicated that at least 1.8 million sexualized images of women were created using Grok in late December and January. Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs stated that the ban was lifted after X outlined concrete steps for service improvements and the prevention of misuse, according to The New York Times' translation. Alexander Sabar, the ministrys director general of digital space monitoring, confirmed the decision.
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