Uber has committed more than $10bn to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in their developers, breaking from its asset-light “gig economy” business model to avoid disruption from robotaxis.
The ride-hailing app has aggressively increased its dealmaking over the past year, announcing partnerships with more than a dozen providers, including China’s Baidu and US-based Rivian, as well as plans to launch robotaxi services in at least 15 cities in 2026.
These deals put Uber on track to invest more than $2.5bn in equity stakes and spend over $7.5bn on robotaxi fleets in the next few years, according to FT calculations based on analyst estimates and people familiar with Uber’s deals. The agreements are contingent on its partners hitting certain deployment milestones.