Uber commits close to $500M to Nuro, bundling Series E participation with milestone-based funding
What's the deal? Uber has committed close to $500 million in Nuro, the self-driving startup pivoting from delivery bots to robotaxi software, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters. The investment includes Uber's participation in a $203 million funding round that valued Nuro at $6 billion, plus a significantly larger follow-on investment and milestone-based funding that together tally nearly half a billion dollars.
The commitment underpins a three-way partnership between Uber, Nuro, and electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors to deploy 35,000 robotaxis using Lucid's Gravity SUVs, Nuro's autonomous driving technology, and Uber's ride-hailing platform.
Why now? The robotaxi industry is re-accelerating after years of false starts, with Tesla, Alphabet's Waymo, and Amazon's Zoox all pushing ahead. Uber is positioning itself as the platform layer for autonomous vehicles and has struck partnerships with Baidu, Rivian, Wayve, and Waymo across multiple markets.
Nuro has already hit its first development milestones on time, triggering the release of some funds. Remaining money is tied to testing without a safety driver — planned for later this year — carrying passengers in driverless cars by year-end, and ramping up the service in 2026.
In April 2026, Nuro received a California permit to test Gravity autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in some counties. In May 2026, it was cleared to carry passengers during testing with drivers. A commercial launch in the San Francisco Bay Area is expected later this year.
What could go wrong? Nuro only pivoted to licensing its self-driving software in 2024, abandoning its original delivery bot business. It still needs to prove the technology works at commercial scale — and the milestone-based funding structure means Uber's full commitment depends on Nuro hitting targets on schedule.
The broader robotaxi sector remains fraught with regulatory hurdles, safety concerns, and a history of overpromising timelines.
The signal: Nuro's backer roster — Uber, Nvidia, and SoftBankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, all classified as corporate investors — reflects a broader pattern of strategic corporates, rather than traditional venture capital firms, bankrolling the capital-intensive robotaxi race. With Nuro still at the "early growth" stage according to Dealroom, the milestone-based funding structure suggests Uber is treating this less as a conventional startup investment and more as a pay-for-progress procurement deal, tying nearly $500 million to tangible deployment targets rather than equity upside alone.
Read more: Reuters via MarketScreener
