Quick answer: Waymo is a majority-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (Google's parent company, NASDAQ: GOOGL), which holds an estimated 75-80% of Waymo's equity and full strategic control. It is not publicly traded, so you cannot buy Waymo stock directly, only indirect exposure through Alphabet shares.
The core ownership structure
Waymo began life inside Google as the "Google Self-Driving Car Project," founded in 2009 by Sebastian Thrun and Anthony Levandowski, before being spun out as a distinct Alphabet subsidiary in 2016. It sits within Alphabet's "Other Bets" segment on Alphabet's financial statements, alongside other longer-horizon ventures.
Despite raising significant outside capital over the years, Alphabet has never given up majority control. As of the company's most recent major funding round (February 2026), Alphabet contributed roughly $13 billion of a $16 billion raise, reinforcing its position as by far the largest and controlling shareholder.
Who the other investors are
Waymo has brought in a genuinely notable roster of outside institutional investors across its funding history, including:
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- Silver Lake
- Sequoia Capital
- Dragoneer Investment Group
- DST Global
- Mubadala Capital (Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund)
- Temasek (Singapore's state investment company)
These investors hold minority stakes, giving them financial upside and, in some cases, a degree of governance input, but none approach Alphabet's controlling position.
The current valuation
Waymo's February 2026 Series D round closed at a $126 billion post-money valuation, more than double its $45 billion valuation from just four months earlier in October 2024, and reportedly the largest funding round ever raised by an autonomous vehicle company. This dramatic jump reflects the company's transition from a research-stage project to a commercially scaling robotaxi service.
Can you invest in Waymo directly?
No. Waymo has no public stock ticker and no announced IPO date as of mid-2026. The only way to gain investment exposure is indirectly:
- Buy Alphabet stock (GOOGL/GOOG) — the most direct, accessible way to gain exposure, since Waymo's growth and eventual profitability (or losses) show up in Alphabet's consolidated financials
- Autonomous vehicle-themed ETFs — funds like KraneShares Electric Vehicles & Future Mobility Index ETF (KARS) or SPDR S&P Kensho Smart Mobility ETF (HAIL) hold a basket of companies in the space, though Waymo itself isn't directly included since it has no public shares
- Private secondary markets — platforms like Forge Global, UpMarket, and Hiive occasionally list Waymo shares from existing employees or early investors seeking liquidity, but this route is generally restricted to accredited investors and carries considerably higher risk and less liquidity than public markets
What Waymo actually does and why it's valuable
Waymo doesn't manufacture vehicles. It develops the "Waymo Driver," the underlying autonomous driving software, sensor suite, and mapping system, then partners with automakers (including Jaguar and China's Zeekr) to install this system into vehicles. As of mid-2026, Waymo operates its driverless Waymo One ride-hailing service across more than 10 U.S. metro areas, completing roughly 500,000 paid rides per week, with a stated internal goal of reaching 1 million weekly rides by the end of 2026, and active plans to expand internationally, including Tokyo and London.
Is Waymo currently profitable?
No. Alphabet's Other Bets segment, which includes Waymo, posted an operating loss of $1.2 billion in Q1 2026 alone. Revenue is growing quickly (annualized revenue around $355 million as of early 2026, up 127% year over year in one estimate), but infrastructure costs, vehicle fleet expansion, and continued R&D investment mean the business remains unprofitable while it scales.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Waymo the same company as Google's self-driving car project?
Yes, Waymo is the direct continuation of that original project, formally spun into its own Alphabet subsidiary in December 2016 after years of internal development at Google.
Will Waymo eventually go public?
Many industry analysts expect this eventually, given the scale of outside investment and the natural desire of minority investors to eventually realize a return, but Alphabet has given no confirmed IPO timeline as of mid-2026.
Does Alphabet control Waymo's day-to-day decisions?
Yes, as the majority and controlling shareholder, Alphabet retains authority over Waymo's strategic direction, even though Waymo operates with its own dedicated leadership team (co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov as of the most recent reporting).
How does Waymo compare to competitors like Tesla's robotaxi effort or Cruise?
Waymo is widely regarded as the current leader in commercially deployed, fully driverless ride volume, ahead of competitors including Tesla's Cybercab/FSD initiative, Amazon's Zoox, and GM's Cruise (which scaled back operations in recent years).
Why Alphabet has been willing to fund Waymo so heavily
Understanding why Alphabet keeps writing such large checks into a still-unprofitable subsidiary helps explain the broader ownership picture. Goldman Sachs has projected the U.S. robotaxi market could reach $48 billion by 2035, and Alphabet's leadership has repeatedly framed Waymo as a genuinely transformative long-term bet on autonomous mobility, not a short-term financial play. Maintaining majority ownership protects Alphabet's ability to capture the bulk of that eventual upside directly, rather than diluting its position the way a company more dependent on external capital might need to.
This also explains the unusual funding pattern: rather than letting outside investors take a majority stake to fund Waymo's expensive infrastructure buildout (vehicle fleets, mapping, data centers for autonomous driving compute), Alphabet has consistently anchored the largest portion of each round itself, even as it welcomes minority co-investment from firms like Sequoia and sovereign wealth funds. This keeps Waymo's governance firmly under Alphabet's control while still bringing in outside capital and, in some cases, useful strategic relationships (sovereign wealth fund investors, for instance, can sometimes help facilitate international market entry).
What minority investors actually get
Since Waymo isn't publicly traded, minority investors like a16z, Silver Lake, and the sovereign wealth funds mentioned above hold private equity stakes with no ability to sell on a public exchange. Their return depends entirely on Waymo either eventually going public (an IPO), being acquired, or continuing to raise money at ever-higher valuations that let early investors sell some of their stake on private secondary markets, as some early employees and investors have already begun doing through platforms like Forge Global. This is a fundamentally illiquid, patient form of investment, appropriate mainly for large institutional investors who can tolerate not knowing exactly when or how they'll realize a return.
A note on why this ownership structure gets confused in searches
Because Waymo has raised such large, headline-grabbing funding rounds and reached such a high valuation, many people search for it the way they'd search for any hot pre-IPO company, assuming there might be a way to buy shares directly. The honest, repeatedly-confirmed answer across every credible source is that this isn't currently possible, and Alphabet's stock remains the only direct public-market way to gain financial exposure to Waymo's performance.
Sources
- Alphabet Inc. investor disclosures and Q1 2026 earnings (Other Bets segment)
- The Motley Fool, "Can You Invest in Waymo in 2026?"
- Built In, "Waymo Explained: Alphabet's Autonomous Vehicle Company"
- Public reporting on Waymo's February 2026 Series D funding round