Waymo and Uber end pilot partnership in Phoenix
Speakers
Mackenzie Sigalos
— Crypto Reporter/Analyst, CNBC
Summary
CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos reports that Waymo and Uber have ended their three-year pilot partnership in Phoenix, with Waymo leaning into its direct-to-consumer app and Uber scrambling to build an autonomous vehicle strategy through multiple partnerships and fleet ownership, highlighting diverging fortunes for Uber and Alphabet.
- Waymo ends three-year Uber partnership in Phoenix; remains operational via own app.
- Waymo positions itself as the leading AV player, running a national ad campaign during World Cup coverage.
- Uber stock down 22% in the past year as it plays catch-up in the AV race.
- Uber pivots to an asset-heavy model with orders for up to 50,000 Rivian and 35,000 Lucid vehicles.
- Waymo’s private valuation roughly $126 billion, on par with Uber’s market cap.
- Waymo scaling fleet with Hyundai Ioniq 5 and a low-cost Chinese chassis to diversify and undercut on price.
- Alphabet’s deep balance sheet allows Waymo to subsidize growth and maintain AV leadership.
- The developments are bearish for Uber and bullish for Alphabet’s Waymo segment.
Ideas
Uber cut out of AV stack, costly fleet shift.
Uber is being cut out of the autonomous vehicle stack by Waymo, is forced to stitch together a patchwork of partnerships, and is abandoning its asset-light model by committing to purchase up to 50,000 Rivian and 35,000 Lucid vehicles, an expensive strategic shift that contributes to its stock dropping over 21% in the past year and leaves it playing catch-up.
Waymo leadership and Alphabet's balance sheet drive upside.
Waymo is the most consequential player in autonomous vehicles, is scaling quickly with a 4,000-vehicle fleet, diversifying with Hyundai Ioniq 5 and lower-cost Chinese chassis, running a national direct-to-consumer ad campaign, and is backed by Alphabet's deep balance sheet, enabling it to subsidize growth and maintain leadership, a value accretive to Alphabet given Waymo's private valuation around $126 billion.
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This CNBC video, published June 30, 2026, features Mackenzie Sigalos discussing UBER, GOOGL. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Mackenzie Sigalos · Tickers: UBER, GOOGL