Wayve, a UK-based leader in AI for autonomous driving, has announced it has raised $1.2bn in a Series D investment round.
Uber, who also participated in the round, committed additional capital of $300m to support the development of Wayve-powered ‘robotaxis’ on the Uber network,
The total funding of $1.5bn brings the London-based firm’s valuation to $8.6bn and will accelerate the company’s shift from AI research leadership to scaled commercial deployment of its end-to-end AI platform.
The round was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and brings in new investment from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, Schroders Capital and other global institutional investors.
Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber participated in the round, alongside global automotive manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis.
Autonomous driving firm Wayve set for $500m NVIDIA investment
Wayve pioneered the application of end-to-end AI to autonomous driving in 2017 and has since industrialised its safety-by-design architecture into a production-ready autonomy platform.
From 2026, consumers will experience Wayve-powered robotaxis through commercial trials with Uber.
From 2027, they will be able to buy passenger vehicles equipped with Wayve’s AI Driver, starting with L2+ ‘hands-off’ capability that allows the vehicle to steer, navigate and respond to traffic under driver supervision.
Wayve licenses its AI Driver directly to automakers, providing tools to customize driving models for specific vehicles and brands.
The system runs entirely on onboard vehicle compute and embedded sensors, and doesn’t rely on high-definition maps or location-specific engineering.
Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve
By partnering with automakers and mobility platforms rather than vertically integrating, Wayve enables autonomy to scale globally with lower capital intensity.
Uber committed additional capital of $300m to support multi-year deployments of Wayve-powered robotaxis on the Uber network, with plans to scale to more than 10 markets globally.
The companies plan to launch their first service in London in 2026, with broader international rollout to follow.
Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, said: “With $1.5bn secured, we are building for a total addressable market that spans every vehicle that moves.
“Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone. It will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously.
“This investment accelerates our path to widespread commercial deployment and positions us to build the autonomy layer that will power any vehicle everywhere.”
Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft, added: “Wayve is pushing the frontier of embodied AI for autonomous driving, and Azure supports the scale, reliability, and safety needed to bring that innovation into the real world.
“Through our partnership and investment, we’re helping accelerate the path from breakthrough research to scaled commercial deployment with automakers worldwide.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber, said: “We are very proud to continue to deepen our partnership with Wayve, with plans to deploy together in more than 10 markets around the world.
“Wayve’s powerful end-to-end approach is purpose-built for scale, safety, and effectiveness, and we’re excited to work with them across multiple OEMs and geographies, which we’ll share more about soon.”
UK Business Secretary of State Peter Kyle said: “The growth of great British AI businesses like Wayve is a big vote of confidence in the UK and in the future of our auto industry that will help to boost jobs and growth across the sector.
“We’re proud to be backing this investment round, giving Wayve the firepower to scale up and thrive. I can’t wait to see more of their cars on the streets around the country and around the world in years to come.”
London-based Wayve was founded in 2017.
The investment builds on NVIDIA’s participation in Wayve’s £850m Series C funding round alongside SoftBank and Microsoft.