10:56 AM PST · January 30, 2026
29 min
Self-driving motortruck startup Waabi’s billion-dollar fundraise isn’t just astir trucks.
The deal, for $750 cardinal up beforehand positive different $250 cardinal from Uber tied to deployment milestones, marks a large enlargement into robotaxis for the institution founded by erstwhile Uber AI main Raquel Urtasun. It besides feels similar different spot from Uber connected the autonomous vehicle roulette table. With much than 20 AV partners worldwide, the question isn’t conscionable whether Waabi can deliver on its plans to deploy implicit 25,000 robotaxis, but whether Uber’s bet-on-everything strategy really works.
Watch as Equity podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane and Anthony Ha discussed Uber’s AV concern strategy, why Waabi’s “simulation-first” attack mightiness beryllium different, and much of the week’s headlines.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and each the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, astatine @EquityPod.
Topics
anduril, Equity Video, IPO, IPO window, Phia, Space, SpaceX, Startups, TikTok, Transportation, Uber, Waabi
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio shaper astatine TechCrunch focusing connected Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch successful 2022, she was 1 of 2 producers astatine a four-station conglomerate wherever she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered unrecorded performances and interviews from guests similar lovelytheband. Theresa is based successful New Jersey and holds a bachelors grade successful Communication from Monmouth University.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Theresa by emailing theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com.
Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news















English (US) ·