Funding round and valuation
<cite index="10-1">London-based Wayve announced on 25 February 2026 that it had raised $1.2 billion in a Series D investment round, bringing its post-money valuation to $8.6 billion.</cite> <cite index="10-9">The round was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with new investment from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, Schroders Capital and other global institutional investors.</cite>
<cite index="10-10,10-11">Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber participated in the round, reflecting support for Wayve's embodied AI as a foundational software layer for deploying autonomy at a global scale. Leading global automotive manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis also invested, in support of advancing Wayve's unified AI platform spanning L2+ "hands off" through L3/L4 "eyes off" driving across vehicles, brands and markets.</cite>
<cite index="5-4">The company could also see a further $300 million milestone-based investment from Uber, tied to the rollout of Wayve-powered robotaxis on Uber's platform across more than 10 global markets</cite>, bringing total capital secured to approximately $1.5 billion. In April 2026, <cite index="9-1,9-2">chipmakers AMD, Arm, and Qualcomm invested $60 million into Wayve as part of an extension to its $1.2 billion Series D funding round.</cite>
Technology approach
<cite index="7-7">Wayve develops an end-to-end AI (Artificial Intelligence) driving system — often described as a "foundation model for driving" — that learns directly from sensor data rather than relying on rule-based autonomy stacks or high-definition maps.</cite> <cite index="7-9,7-10">Unlike many competitors, Wayve does not build its own vehicles. Instead, it licenses its AI Driver software directly to automakers. The system runs entirely on onboard vehicle compute and embedded sensors, without requiring city-specific engineering or HD map infrastructure.</cite>
<cite index="8-2">The same model powers capabilities from L2+ "hands-off" ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) through L3 "eyes-off" and L4 driverless applications.</cite> <cite index="5-14">Wayve said it became the first autonomous vehicle developer to complete "zero-shot" driving – operating without city-specific fine-tuning – in more than 500 cities across Europe, North America and Japan within a single year, a claim it attributes to training its foundation model on globally diverse data.</cite> <cite index="3-18">The company credits this performance to a foundation model trained on data from more than 70 countries and multiple vehicle platforms.</cite>
Commercial deployment plans
<cite index="5-11,5-12,5-13">Under its partnership with Uber, Wayve plans to launch commercial robotaxi trials in London in 2026, with broader international rollout to follow. Uber will own and operate the fleets while Wayve supplies its AI Driver software for L4-capable vehicles from participating automakers. From 2027, Wayve expects consumers to be able to buy passenger vehicles equipped with its supervised autonomy software, beginning with L2+ functionality.</cite>
The company has signed multiple production agreements with automakers. <cite index="8-6,8-7">Wayve signed a definitive production partnership with Nissan in 2025 to integrate its AI Driver into next-generation ProPILOT driver-assistance systems. The first mass-produced vehicles are expected to launch in Japan and other markets from fiscal year 2027.</cite> <cite index="8-8">In March 2026, Wayve partnered with Uber and Nissan for a robotaxi pilot in Tokyo starting in late 2026, subject to regulatory discussions, Uber's first autonomous vehicle partnership in Japan.</cite> <cite index="4-1,4-2,4-3">Stellantis, the automaker behind the Jeep and Ram brands, has tapped Wayve to bring hands-free driving to its vehicles in 2028. The companies announced the deal during Stellantis' investor day at its North American headquarters in Michigan.</cite>
Company background
<cite index="10-12">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.</cite> The company was founded by Alex Kendall, who serves as Co-Founder and CEO. <cite index="10-8">The funding accelerates the company's shift from AI research leadership to scaled commercial deployment of its end-to-end AI platform.</cite>