On 5 August, during its Q2 earnings, Uber announced a commitment of more than US$10bn to its robotaxi aggregator strategy over the next few years, and it took pains to insist Waymo remains a “very, very important partner” despite the two companies actively winding down their partnership. Shares fell 4.8% anyway, after Uber’s third-quarter profit forecast came in below Wall Street expectations. During the call, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi framed the spending as a sign of strength rather than pressure and claimed Uber’s record US$2.8bn in quarterly free cash flow (and US$10.1bn over the trailing 12 months) gives it room to fund autonomous vehicle partners as they scale. It is moving quickly to ramp these partnerships into commercial services, of which seven are already live in various global cities. Khosrowshahi reiterated the company’s plans to reach as many as 15 by year-end, and 28 by 2028. The company’s best-known and arguably most prestigious partnership is—was—with Waymo, but tensions between the two companies have been readily apparent for months. Waymo quietly wound down its Phoenix robotaxi and food delivery arrangements with Uber in May 2026 and notified the company of plans to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta from January 2028. This would effectively end exclusivity in both cities once the current contract lapses in May of that year. Uber has since confirmed that Waymo would likely depart from its platform when the contract lapses. Khosrowshahi appeared to acknowledge the tension while emphasising that there are no shortage of Waymo substitutes now out there: “we’re absolutely seeing a plethora of newer players in the AV ecosystem,” emphasising that Uber wants to avoid depending on any single partner. The rift primarily traces back to competing philosophies between the companies about distribution. Waymo has built direct customer relationships in every city