What are the top autonomous vehicle startups by total funding raised?

Top startups in the autonomous vehicle market ranked by total funding raised

Here is an updated table that ranks the top startups in the autonomous vehicle market based on the total amount of funding they have raised to date.

The table also includes the total number of funding rounds, the date and size of the latest round, the financing type (e.g. Series A, equity financing), key investors, the startup’s current status (active, IPO, acquired, or shut down), and a confidence score based on the data collected (we excluded startups with very low data confidence, to make sure everything is reliable).

If you need to dig deeper and get more detailed data, please check our report covering the autonomous vehicle market.

Which autonomous vehicle startups have raised the most money?

Waymo is by far the most funded autonomous vehicle company today, with roughly $27.3 billion in cumulative funding in our dataset.

Cruise comes next at about $9.4 billion, followed by Aurora Innovation at $5.0 billion. Pony.ai, Wayve, Motional, WeRide and Nuro form the next group, each with roughly $2.3 billion to $2.7 billion.

The gap at the top is huge. Waymo has raised almost three times as much as Cruise and more than five times as much as Aurora. Its latest $16 billion round, led by Dragoneer, DST Global and Sequoia Capital with continued backing from Alphabet, widened an already large lead.

After the top eight, funding drops quickly. Argo AI reached roughly $2 billion before shutting down. TuSimple and DiDi Autonomous Driving sit around $1.9 billion. Momenta is at roughly $1.3 billion, while Waabi and Stack AV are around the $1 billion mark.

Across all 89 companies in our dataset, we calculate about $74.7 billion in cumulative funding.

Rank	Autonomous vehicle company	Total funding
1	Waymo	$27.3B
2	Cruise	$9.4B
3	Aurora Innovation	$5.0B
4	Pony.ai	$2.7B
5	Wayve	$2.5B
6	Motional	$2.5B
7	WeRide	$2.3B
8	Nuro	$2.3B
9	Argo AI	$2.0B
10	TuSimple	$1.9B
11	DiDi Autonomous Driving	$1.9B
12	Momenta	$1.3B
13	Waabi	$1.0B
14	Stack AV	$1.0B
15	Zoox	$815M

Is Waymo really that far ahead in autonomous vehicle funding?

Yes. Waymo currently accounts for about 37% of all the autonomous vehicle funding tracked in our 89-company dataset.

That becomes easier to understand when we compare Waymo with several competitors at once. Cruise, Aurora, Pony.ai and Wayve have raised roughly $19.6 billion combined. Waymo alone is at approximately $27.3 billion.

The difference widened sharply after Waymo raised another $16 billion at a $126 billion post-money valuation. That one financing was larger than the entire funding history of every other autonomous vehicle company in the ranking.

Waymo also reached this point through several very large financing cycles. It announced a $2.5 billion round in 2021 and another $5.6 billion round in 2024 before its latest financing.

Funding obviously measures financial backing rather than autonomous miles, revenue or technical quality. Still, the scale advantage is real: no other autonomous-driving company currently has a comparable amount of visible capital behind it.

How concentrated is autonomous vehicle startup funding?

Autonomous vehicle funding is extremely concentrated: the top 20 companies account for about 90% of all the capital in our dataset.

We calculate approximately $67.2 billion for the top 20 out of roughly $74.7 billion across all 89 companies. The top ten alone represent around $57.9 billion, or close to 78%.

Five companies absorb almost two thirds of the total. Waymo, Cruise, Aurora, Pony.ai and Wayve together have raised roughly $46.9 billion.

The drop farther down the ranking is steep. Roughly $1.9 billion gets a company into the top ten, while about $552 million is enough for the top 20. The top-30 threshold falls to approximately $306 million, and the 50th company has raised around $79 million.

So although autonomous driving has produced dozens of funded startups around the world, most of the industry's capital has ended up in a surprisingly small group.

Cutoff	Approx. funding required	Share of total funding above cutoff
Top 5	$2.5B+	~63%
Top 10	$1.9B+	~78%
Top 15	$815M+	~87%
Top 20	$552M+	~90%
Top 30	$306M+	~95%
Top 40	$130M+	~98%
Top 50	$79M+	~99%

Is Cruise really still the second-most-funded autonomous vehicle company?

Yes historically, but Cruise is no longer an independent robotaxi competitor in the way its $9.4 billion funding total might suggest.

General Motors spent years putting enormous amounts of capital into Cruise. In 2022, for example, GM announced another $1.35 billion investment after buying SoftBank Vision Fund's Cruise stake.

The strategy later changed dramatically. GM stopped funding Cruise's standalone robotaxi expansion, moved to acquire the remaining shares and integrated Cruise's autonomous-driving work more closely into GM. The company said that restructuring would reduce annual spending by more than $1 billion.

That leaves Cruise in an unusual position in a funding ranking. The roughly $9.4 billion belongs in the historical total because that money was genuinely invested. But second place no longer means Cruise is currently raising capital to compete with Waymo as an independent robotaxi company.

For readers interested specifically in active standalone companies, Aurora, Pony.ai, Wayve, Motional, WeRide and Nuro are more relevant comparisons.

What are the biggest autonomous vehicle funding rounds ever?

Waymo's $16 billion financing sits far above the other major autonomous vehicle funding rounds we found.

The next tier is much smaller. Cruise received another $1.35 billion from GM in 2022. TuSimple raised around $1.35 billion through its IPO. Wayve closed a $1.05 billion Series C led by SoftBank in 2024, while Stack AV launched with roughly $1 billion of backing from SoftBank.

More recently, Waabi closed a $750 million Series C. Neolix raised more than $600 million in Series D financing. Momenta previously raised $500 million in its Series C+ round, while Motional received $475 million from Hyundai Motor Group in 2024.

These numbers also show why billion-dollar autonomous vehicle rounds still deserve attention. They happen, but only a tiny minority of AV companies ever reach that scale in one transaction. Most companies outside the top 20 have not raised $1 billion across their entire history.

Company	Major financing	Amount
Waymo	Investment round	$16.0B
Cruise	GM investment	$1.35B
TuSimple	IPO	~$1.35B
Wayve	Series C	$1.05B
Stack AV	Initial backing	~$1.0B
Pony.ai	Hong Kong offering	~$860M gross
Waabi	Series C	$750M
Neolix	Series D	$600M+
Momenta	Series C+	$500M
Motional	Hyundai investment	$475M

Are robotaxi startups still attracting the most autonomous vehicle funding?

Yes. Robotaxi companies still dominate cumulative autonomous vehicle funding, largely because Waymo and Cruise absorbed extraordinary amounts of capital.

Waymo and Cruise alone represent about $36.7 billion in our dataset. Adding Pony.ai, Motional and WeRide brings that group above $44 billion.

Some of those totals reflect earlier investment cycles rather than money being raised today. Cruise is the clearest example. Its historical total remains huge even though GM abandoned the standalone robotaxi expansion strategy.

The newer robotaxi market also looks different. Pony.ai and WeRide are now publicly traded, giving them access to public equity alongside private capital. Waabi has moved beyond trucking into robotaxis through a partnership with Uber. Nuro has shifted toward supplying autonomous-driving technology rather than funding a giant proprietary delivery fleet.

Robotaxis therefore remain the largest capital pool, but the financing model around them has changed substantially.

Which autonomous trucking startups have raised the most money?

Aurora is comfortably the best-funded autonomous trucking company, while Waabi, Stack AV and PlusAI lead the next group.

Our dataset puts Aurora at about $5 billion in cumulative funding. Waabi and Stack AV are around $1 billion each, followed by PlusAI at roughly $722 million, Inceptio Technology at $679 million and DeepWay at $593 million.

The recent money flowing into trucking is especially interesting. Waabi closed a $750 million Series C and expanded into robotaxis. Gatik raised $200 million in a Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Gatik said at the time that it had more than $600 million in contracted revenue and had completed 85,000 fully driverless orders.

Aurora has already moved into commercial driverless trucking. The company launched regular driverless customer deliveries in Texas in 2025 and has since expanded its network.

This combination of large rounds and real freight activity is why trucking currently looks like one of the strongest parts of autonomous driving outside robotaxis.

Autonomous trucking company	Total funding in dataset
Aurora Innovation	$5.0B
Waabi	$1.0B
Stack AV	$1.0B
Plus / PlusAI	$722M
Inceptio Technology	$679M
DeepWay	$593M
Einride	$465M
Kodiak Robotics / Kodiak AI	$381M
Gatik	$355M
Embark Trucks	$317M
KargoBot	$286M
FERNRIDE	$79M

Which Chinese autonomous vehicle startups have raised the most funding?

Pony.ai is the best-funded Chinese autonomous-driving company in our dataset, but China has a much deeper group of well-funded AV startups than the headline ranking suggests.

Pony.ai sits at approximately $2.7 billion, followed by WeRide at $2.3 billion, DiDi Autonomous Driving at $1.9 billion and Momenta at $1.3 billion.

The next layer is unusually dense. Neolix has raised roughly $727 million, Inceptio about $679 million, DeepWay $593 million, DeepRoute.ai $450 million and UISEE $408 million. ZongMu Technology, KargoBot, QCraft, Haomo.AI, MINIEYE and MAXIEYE add more companies farther down.

The US still leads by a large margin at the very top. Waymo alone has raised more than Pony.ai, WeRide, DiDi Autonomous Driving and Momenta combined.

China's advantage is breadth. Its funded ecosystem covers robotaxis, autonomous trucks, urban delivery, parking, ADAS and production driving software. Several companies also have a clearer route into mass-produced passenger vehicles than pure robotaxi businesses do.

So China has not matched the US funding totals at the top, but it has built a very broad autonomous-driving startup base.

Which autonomous vehicle startups have raised major funding lately?

Waabi, Gatik, Wayve and several Chinese AV companies are among the startups attracting meaningful fresh capital these days.

Waabi's $750 million Series C stands out because it moved the company to roughly $1 billion in cumulative funding after only a few years in operation. Uber also committed additional milestone-based future investment tied to Waabi's robotaxi partnership.

Gatik followed with a $200 million Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Wayve added another $60 million from AMD, Arm and Qualcomm to its existing Series D financing.

Neolix's more-than-$600 million Series D was another unusually large private financing. The company described it as the largest private-equity financing in China's autonomous-driving sector at the time.

Public and pre-public transactions are appearing alongside these venture rounds. Aurora raised $236 million of gross equity capital through its ATM program in the first half of 2026. PlusAI has announced a business combination that could provide up to $300 million in capital, while May Mobility recently announced a SPAC transaction alongside a $120 million committed PIPE.

The current funding market is active, but the checks are clustering around companies with credible commercial partners, deployment programs or access to public capital.

Why has Wayve raised so much money?

Wayve has attracted roughly $2.5 billion because investors are betting that its autonomous-driving AI can be deployed across many automakers without Wayve having to manufacture its own cars.

Its biggest round was the $1.05 billion Series C led by SoftBank, with Nvidia and Microsoft participating. That instantly pushed Wayve into the small group of AV startups capable of raising more than $1 billion at once.

The company's more recent $60 million Series D extension is smaller financially but interesting strategically. AMD, Arm and Qualcomm all joined the round. For Wayve, support from multiple major compute companies helps its argument that the Wayve AI Driver can work across different vehicle and hardware platforms.

Wayve also has collaborations with automakers rather than depending entirely on owning and operating a proprietary robotaxi fleet.

If that model works, manufacturing stays largely with car companies while Wayve supplies the driving intelligence. That helps explain why investors have been willing to finance Wayve at a scale normally associated with much more asset-heavy autonomous-driving businesses.

Why has Nuro raised more than $2 billion?

Nuro has raised roughly $2.3 billion because investors have financed both its original autonomous-delivery strategy and its newer plan to supply autonomous-driving technology to partners.

The company closed a $203 million Series E in 2025 that included Uber, Nvidia, Baillie Gifford and other investors. Nuro said the round valued the company at $6 billion.

That investor mix fits the direction the business is taking now. Uber can bring ride-hailing demand, Nvidia provides an important part of the compute ecosystem, and vehicle partners can supply physical platforms.

Earlier in its life, Nuro was best known for purpose-built autonomous delivery vehicles. Its current strategy puts more emphasis on licensing and commercial partnerships around the Nuro Driver.

The $2.3 billion cumulative figure therefore covers two versions of the company: the capital-intensive delivery business that made Nuro famous and the more partnership-driven autonomy platform it is building today.

Who is putting the most money into autonomous vehicle startups?

Alphabet, SoftBank, Hyundai, Uber, major automakers and large institutional investors have become some of the most important sources of autonomous vehicle capital.

Alphabet's backing of Waymo is the most obvious example. Few startups could fund autonomous driving for this long without a parent company capable of supporting years of expensive development.

SoftBank has repeatedly made large AV bets. It led Wayve's $1.05 billion Series C and supplied the roughly $1 billion backing behind Stack AV.

Hyundai has also committed heavily to autonomy. In 2024, Hyundai Motor Group invested another $475 million in Motional as part of a broader ownership restructuring. Motional simultaneously acknowledged that large-scale driverless deployment would take longer than originally hoped.

Uber increasingly shows up as both investor and potential distribution partner. Its relationships span Waabi, Nuro, Waymo and May Mobility, among others.

Chip companies have become more visible as well. Nvidia appears around Nuro, Waabi and numerous technology partnerships, while AMD, Arm and Qualcomm recently invested together in Wayve.

The common thread is useful strategic leverage. Many of today's most valuable AV investors can provide vehicles, chips, customers, ride-hailing demand or unusually patient capital in addition to cash.

Does raising more money make an autonomous vehicle startup more likely to succeed?

No. The autonomous vehicle market already has several multibillion-dollar examples showing that huge funding does not guarantee a lasting business.

Cruise raised about $9.4 billion before GM ended its standalone robotaxi strategy. Argo AI raised roughly $2 billion before shutting down. TuSimple raised around $1.9 billion, yet its original US autonomous-trucking story changed dramatically after its public listing.

Embark Trucks raised hundreds of millions before Applied Intuition acquired it for an equity value of roughly $71 million. Ghost Autonomy shut down after raising around $220 million.

Money remains essential in autonomous driving because engineering, vehicles, sensors, compute, testing and safety validation are expensive. Running out of money before the technology is commercial is a very real risk.

What the history disproves is the simpler idea that the company with the largest financing automatically has the strongest technology or best business. AV investors have already spent billions on strategies that were later abandoned.

How much autonomous vehicle funding went into companies that were acquired or shut down?

At least roughly $13.3 billion in our dataset went into autonomous vehicle companies that were later acquired or shut down.

As seen above, Cruise accounts for most of that amount with approximately $9.4 billion. Argo AI adds roughly $2 billion. Zoox, which Amazon acquired and continues to develop, had raised about $815 million.

Embark, Ghost Autonomy, 42dot, Navya, Drive.ai, Optimus Ride, Ike, Voyage, Locomation and several smaller companies make up much of the rest.

Acquisition does not necessarily mean the underlying technology failed. Amazon bought Zoox to continue building robotaxis. Hyundai acquired 42dot as part of its software strategy. Applied Intuition acquired Embark's technology and assets.

Even with that qualification, the aggregate is useful. Autonomous driving has already consumed more than $13 billion of funding in companies that no longer operate as independent businesses in their original form.

Company	Funding in dataset	Status
Cruise	$9.4B	Acquired / integrated into GM
Argo AI	$2.0B	Shut down
Zoox	$815M	Acquired by Amazon
Embark Trucks	$317M	Acquired
Ghost Autonomy	$220M	Shut down
42dot	$130M	Acquired
Navya	$83M	Acquired
Drive.ai	$77M	Acquired
Optimus Ride	$76M	Acquired
Ike	$52M	Acquired
Voyage	$48M	Acquired
Locomation	$31M	Shut down
ThorDrive	$26M	Acquired
Starsky Robotics	$20M	Shut down

Are public markets replacing venture capital for autonomous vehicle companies?

Public markets are becoming much more important for mature autonomous vehicle companies, although private funding still supplies some of the largest rounds in the sector.

Pony.ai and WeRide now trade in both the US and Hong Kong. Pony.ai's Hong Kong offering generated approximately HK$6.7 billion in gross proceeds before fees based on the final offer size disclosed by the company. WeRide's Hong Kong global offering raised roughly HK$2.39 billion before any over-allotment.

Aurora has continued raising capital as a listed company too. Its SEC filing for the first half of 2026 shows $236 million of gross proceeds through an at-the-market stock program.

Other AV companies are trying to follow. PlusAI has announced a business combination valuing it at about $800 million pre-money that could bring up to $300 million of capital. May Mobility has announced a separate transaction implying roughly $1.4 billion of pro forma enterprise value, with up to $337 million of expected gross proceeds subject to redemptions.

Those last two transactions are announced deals, not completed public listings as of now.

The funding leaderboard therefore mixes several kinds of equity capital these days: venture rounds, strategic investments, IPOs, follow-on offerings, PIPEs and SPAC transactions.

Which autonomous vehicle startups are climbing the funding ranking fastest?

Waabi, Neolix, Gatik and several younger autonomous-driving companies have moved up the ranking much faster than the old leaders did through traditional venture rounds.

Waabi is the clearest example. Founded in 2021, the company reached roughly $1 billion in funding after closing its $750 million Series C. That moved it into the top 15 of a ranking filled with companies that have existed much longer.

Neolix made an equally dramatic jump with its more-than-$600 million Series D. The round took its cumulative funding to roughly $727 million in our dataset.

Gatik's recent $200 million financing pushed it to around $355 million. KargoBot and QCraft have also moved higher after $100 million rounds.

Stack AV is an unusual case because it essentially started near the top. SoftBank committed roughly $1 billion when the autonomous-trucking company launched, bypassing the normal progression from seed funding through several venture stages.

As seen above, Waabi's $750 million round is already one of the largest private financings in the sector. A few big checks can now reshape the middle of the ranking very quickly.

How much funding does an autonomous vehicle startup need to count as heavily funded?

Around $500 million currently puts an autonomous vehicle company among the top 20 in our dataset, while roughly $2 billion marks the genuinely elite funding tier.

The thresholds tell us more than calling every $100 million startup "well funded." In most technology markets, $100 million is a huge amount of venture capital. In autonomous driving, it places a company roughly around the middle of this ranking.

The tenth-ranked company has raised about $1.9 billion. The 20th sits around $552 million. The 30th is close to $306 million, and the 50th has approximately $79 million.

That scale reflects how expensive the sector has been. A company can burn through years of expensive engineering, vehicle operations and validation work even after raising several hundred million dollars.

The right threshold also depends on what the company is building. A narrowly focused industrial-autonomy company can plausibly reach customers with much less capital than a business trying to operate a general-purpose robotaxi network across major cities.

Why do some autonomous vehicle startups need billions while others raise less than $100 million?

Autonomous vehicle funding requirements vary so much because building a full robotaxi network is a much bigger job than selling autonomy software for one vehicle or one controlled environment.

A full-stack robotaxi company may develop driving software, sensor hardware, compute, mapping, simulation and fleet operations at the same time. It can also carry the costs of vehicles, maintenance, remote assistance, safety operations and customer service.

Software-oriented companies can leave more of that work to partners. Wayve wants automakers to integrate its AI Driver. PlusAI works with truck manufacturers. Nuro is increasingly positioning its driving system for partner vehicles and mobility services.

More constrained autonomy businesses can narrow the problem even further. FERNRIDE focuses on yards and terminals. EasyMile has worked on shuttles and industrial applications. A company operating vehicles at lower speeds inside defined areas faces a very different cost structure from Waymo.

Funding totals therefore tell us something about ambition and cost, but they also tell us which parts of the business each company has chosen to own.

Is autonomous vehicle funding booming again?

Autonomous vehicle funding is clearly strong again, but today's money is concentrating in far fewer companies than during the earlier self-driving rush.

The recent pattern includes a $750 million Waabi Series C, more than $600 million for Neolix, $203 million for Nuro, $200 million for Gatik, fresh strategic capital for Wayve and continued equity fundraising by listed companies such as Aurora.

That is enough activity to dismiss the idea that investors have abandoned autonomous driving.

The difference is where the money goes. Investors can now look at more than a technical demonstration. They can ask whether a company has an automaker, a freight customer, a ride-hailing platform, a public-market route or a deployment that generates real usage.

Earlier AV funding often rested on the expectation that broad Level 4 or Level 5 autonomy would eventually create an enormous market. These days, large financings are clustering around companies that can explain exactly how their technology reaches vehicles and customers.

We would call this a selective new funding cycle rather than a return to the old free-for-all.

Are newer autonomous vehicle startups catching the first generation?

A few newer autonomous vehicle startups are catching the old funding leaders surprisingly quickly, although Waymo's scale remains far beyond them.

Waabi is the clearest case. Its roughly $1 billion funding total now puts a company founded in 2021 alongside startups that spent a decade accumulating capital.

Stack AV reached roughly the same funding level almost immediately through SoftBank backing. Neolix has moved beyond $700 million, while Gatik, KargoBot and QCraft have gained ground through recent large rounds.

The contrast with the first generation is striking. Argo AI needed years of development and strategic backing from Ford and Volkswagen to reach roughly $2 billion. Cruise accumulated billions through repeated GM and outside investments. Companies can now jump hundreds of positions in the broader startup landscape with one unusually large late-stage round.

That does not mean younger businesses have caught the first generation technically. It does show that investors are willing to capitalize a few newer approaches very aggressively when they believe the business model has improved.

Which autonomous vehicle business models are attracting funding now?

Autonomous trucking, partner-led robotaxis and driving software are currently attracting more visible fresh capital than the old model of building everything internally.

Waabi combines autonomous trucking with a future Uber robotaxi deployment. Gatik focuses on repeatable freight routes for large commercial customers. Wayve wants its AI Driver inside vehicles produced by established manufacturers. Nuro increasingly supplies autonomy through partnerships. PlusAI is building virtual-driver software for factory-produced autonomous trucks.

These models reduce at least one expensive part of the classic AV stack. The autonomy company does not always need to manufacture vehicles, own every fleet, find riders itself and finance distribution simultaneously.

May Mobility offers another variation. Its announced public-market transaction describes the company as using an asset-light Autonomy-as-a-Service model with ride-hailing and mobility partners.

Waymo remains the obvious exception because its financial resources allow it to operate much more of the system itself.

The newer funding pattern suggests investors have become much more interested in who carries each cost. A strong driving system is still essential, but these companies increasingly need an answer for vehicles, customers and distribution before very large checks arrive.

Are the best-funded autonomous vehicle companies still active today?

Most of the current top 20 remain active, but several of the biggest historical funding stories have already disappeared or changed form.

Waymo, Aurora, Pony.ai, Wayve, Motional, WeRide, Nuro, DiDi Autonomous Driving, Momenta, Waabi, Stack AV, Neolix, PlusAI, Inceptio, DeepWay and TIER IV are still operating in autonomous driving.

Cruise has been absorbed more deeply into GM. Argo AI shut down. Zoox was acquired by Amazon, although Zoox itself continues operating as Amazon's autonomous-vehicle company. TuSimple went through major strategic changes after its original autonomous-trucking push.

That mix is another reason cumulative funding rankings need context. Historical fundraising remains important because the capital was genuinely raised and spent, but it can make an old company look more prominent than it is in the current competitive landscape.

For readers looking specifically at today's independent contenders, active-company status matters almost as much as the headline total.

So who really dominates autonomous vehicle funding today?

Waymo overwhelmingly dominates autonomous vehicle funding today, while the more interesting contest is happening among the much smaller group behind it.

Our dataset contains roughly $74.7 billion of cumulative funding across 89 companies. Waymo represents about 37% by itself. The top ten absorb roughly 78%, and the top 20 close to 90%.

Behind Waymo, there is no single funding model winning the rest of the market. Aurora has become the financial heavyweight in autonomous trucking. Pony.ai and WeRide combine private-market histories with access to US and Hong Kong investors. Wayve is betting on automaker-integrated driving AI. Nuro has moved toward a partner-led model. Waabi has raised unusually quickly while expanding from trucks into robotaxis.

The failures matter just as much. More than $13 billion in the dataset went into companies that were later acquired or shut down, including some of the industry's most famous early names.

So the funding race gives us a clear answer about financial power but a much less automatic answer about who ultimately wins autonomous driving. Waymo has the biggest war chest by an extraordinary margin. Below it, investors are increasingly backing companies that can connect autonomous-driving technology to an actual vehicle, customer and distribution channel without trying to own every part of the stack themselves.