Just as we thought the frenzy over autonomous vehicle funding had settled into a sensible simmer, Waabi has turned up with a billion-dollar jerrycan of petrol. The Toronto-based AI outfit has just announced a staggering $1 billion (£785m) funding round to supercharge its driverless trucking operations and—more surprisingly—to unleash a massive fleet of robotaxis in an exclusive tie-up with Uber.
The deal centres on an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, with an additional commitment from Uber linked to the rollout of 25,000 or more Waabi-powered robotaxis on its network. This bombshell, reportedly the largest venture capital raise in Canadian history, catapults Waabi from a promising logistics firm into a direct heavyweight contender in the cutthroat robotaxi arena. The round also saw participation from heavyweights like NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm), Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
At the core of Waabi’s audacious strategy is its “Physical AI” platform, which the company claims uses a single “shared brain” to power both its HGVs and the upcoming robotaxis. This simulation-first philosophy, heavily dependent on its Waabi World simulator, is designed to be leaner and more capital-efficient. It allegedly sidesteps the need for “gazillions of humans” and the vast real-world fleets that rivals rely on for training data. The logic is simple: every lesson a truck learns on a motorway can be instantly ported to a robotaxi navigating a cluttered city centre, and vice versa.
Why does this matter?
This isn’t just a fat cheque; it’s a strategic gambit that reshuffles the entire pack in the autonomous vehicle industry. For starters, it’s a massive vote of confidence in a simulation-first, AI-centric approach over the “brute force” data-collection methods used by “AV 1.0” companies. Furthermore, the exclusive Uber partnership gives Waabi a clear, scalable route to market—a hurdle that has tripped up many a well-funded startup.
By branching out from the arguably more complex world of autonomous trucking into the dual fronts of logistics and ride-sharing, Waabi is laying down a marker. It’s betting that its unified AI brain is the silver bullet needed to crack both markets at once. If it pulls it off, it could create an unprecedented feedback loop of learning and deployment, leaving more specialised rivals in its wake. The robotaxi wars just got a whole lot more interesting.
