Wayve, the UK-based autonomous vehicle software company, has raised $1.5 billion in a new funding round that values the startup at $8.6 billion. The capital infusion comes from a consortium of major technology and automotive players, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Uber, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis. The round includes $1.2 billion from these strategic investors, with additional funding from Uber tied to global deployments of Wayve-powered robotaxis. The funding will accelerate Wayve’s mission to expand its self-driving technology beyond the UK and into over 10 markets worldwide, starting with London this year. The company has been testing its AI-driven system on British roads since 2017 and views the city as its home base and proving ground. Alex Kendall, Wayve’s CEO, emphasized the company’s focus on software rather than building its own fleet. Unlike Tesla or Waymo, Wayve does not operate robotaxis directly. Instead, it licenses its AI driver software to automakers and mobility platforms like Uber. “Everyone wants autonomy, but not everyone wants to buy a Tesla,” Kendall said. By avoiding the high costs and limitations of owning a vehicle fleet, Wayve can scale its technology across multiple platforms and car models. A key differentiator is Wayve’s approach to AI training. Its system is designed to be generalizable—similar to how humans learn to drive different vehicles and adapt to new environments. This allows the AI to quickly adjust to new cities, driving rules, and road layouts, including switching from left-hand to right-hand driving, without relying on expensive high-definition maps or specialized hardware like lidar. Instead, it uses standard cameras and machine learning to understand and respond to real-world conditions. Over the past year, Wayve’s fleet of Ford Mach-Es equipped with its software has driven in more than 500 cities across Europe, North America, and Japan—all without city-specific training data. This demonstrates the system’s ability to generalize across diverse environments. Wayve is also expanding into the consumer market with plans to license its technology as an advanced driver-assistance system, similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving. A key partnership with Nissan will bring Wayve’s AI to the Japanese automaker’s ProPilot system starting in 2027. The company’s entry into London’s growing robotaxi market coincides with increased competition. Waymo is preparing to launch its autonomous vehicles in the UK for the first time, while Baidu is partnering with Lyft to bring its robotaxis to the city via Uber’s app. With strong backing from Big Tech and automakers, Wayve aims to become a foundational software layer in the global shift toward self-driving transportation.