Waymo rakes in $2.25 billion in self-driving unit’s first external fundraising

Waymo just announced a significant milestone: its first external fundraising round. The self-driving division of Alphabet raked in $2.25 billion in a funding round led by Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. Additional investors include Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz, and AutoNation, as well as Alphabet.
To date, Waymo has been an outlier in the world of self-driving cars, relying almost exclusively on the largesse of its corporate parent. That changes with today’s announcement, shifting Waymo into an uncertain but potentially lucrative new phase.
“all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world”
Waymo CEO John Krafcik…

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