Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Alphabet, has gone to the private debt markets for the first time in its history, upsizing a loan to $5 billion from an initial target of just over $3 billion, according to people familiar with the deal cited in Bloomberg's reporting. The financing marks a turning point for a company that has relied almost entirely on equity from Alphabet and outside investors to fund more than a decade of autonomous-driving research and the costly buildout of a commercial robotaxi fleet.
Goldman Sachs arranged the unrated loan, which priced at 5.25 percentage points over the benchmark rate, according to a report on the upsized financing. PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street Partners are the lead lenders. Because the loan is unrated, Waymo avoids the disclosure requirements and credit-agency scrutiny that typically accompany a public bond sale — a structure increasingly favored by fast-growing private companies that want capital without going public. A separate newsroom's rundown of the financing adds that the deal has already been fully allocated among lenders.
A Shift From Pure Equity
Until now, Waymo's growth has been bankrolled entirely by stock. Earlier this year the company raised $16 billion in an equity round that valued it at $126 billion, one of the largest private financings of 2026. Turning to debt signals that Waymo's backers see the business as mature enough to support borrowed capital — and that the scale of spending needed to keep expanding has outgrown what equity checks alone can comfortably cover.
Coverage of the deal ties the new money directly to two costs: growing the physical fleet of robotaxis and the computing bills behind the AI models that drive them. Waymo disclosed in August that it had built a custom chip aimed at improving robotaxi performance, part of a broader industry trend of AI companies designing their own silicon to cut reliance on Nvidia and control costs as model training and inference expenses climb.
Representatives for Waymo, Goldman Sachs, PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street all declined to comment when the smaller version of the deal was first reported in early September, and no company has issued an on-the-record statement specific to the final $5 billion terms.
Scaling a Paid Robotaxi Business
Waymo's robotaxis already operate as a paid service in 14 U.S. cities, with a fleet of more than 4,000 vehicles completing upwards of 500,000 paid trips a week, according to the reporting. The company has set a public goal of reaching 1 million paid weekly rides by the end of the year, a target that implies roughly doubling current ride volume within months.
International expansion is a major part of the pitch to lenders. Waymo has said it is preparing to test or launch service in more than a dozen additional markets, including London, Tokyo and Munich, as it moves from a US-only operator toward a global one. That rollout brings new costs — mapping unfamiliar roads, adapting to different traffic laws and weather, and building local operations teams — that the new debt is intended to help cover.
One analysis of the deal noted that, measured against a sample of more than 200 recent financings in the robotics sector, Waymo's $5 billion raise is the largest debt round on record for a US robotics company, underscoring how capital-intensive the robotaxi race has become even for a well-funded Alphabet subsidiary.
What Happens Next
The loan has reportedly been fully allocated and is expected to close soon, though exact timing has not been confirmed by any of the parties involved. The deal is likely to be watched closely by rivals: Uber borrowed its first debt, $1.15 billion, back in 2016 three years before going public, a precedent some analysts see as a possible roadmap for Waymo's own path toward an eventual public offering. For now, Alphabet has given no indication it plans to spin Waymo off or take it public, and the company continues to describe its focus as scaling the ride-hailing service rather than preparing for an IPO.
