Wayve, a London-based autonomous driving company, is now among Europe’s most valuable artificial intelligence (AI) companies after backing from Microsoft, Nvidia, Uber, and others.

The British startup secured $1.2 billion in the latest round of investment, bringing its valuation to approximately $8.6 billion and buoying hopes about the continent’s tech future.

Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber participated in the funding round alongside legacy carmakers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Stellantis, as Wayve seeks to deploy its self-driving technology globally.

Uber will also invest to support the rollout of Wayve’s robotaxi service in more than 10 markets. Wayve said it plans to launch commercial robotaxi trials this year, starting in London, and deploy its supervised autonomy software in consumer vehicles from 2027.

While London is the firm’s primary testing ground, the company has run trials of its technology in multiple cities across Europe, North America, and Japan, with a dedicated testing center in Tokyo.

Alex Kendall, a co-founder and chief executive officer of Wayve, said that the investment will accelerate the company’s efforts to deploy its technology globally.

“Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone. It will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously,” Kendall said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Wayve is “pushing a new frontier,” while Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi said he was “very proud” of the deepening ties between the two companies.

UK Technology Secretary of State Liz Kendall (no relation to Alex Kendall) said Wayve is “a powerful example of the strength, ambition, and potential of Britain’s innovative firms.”

“This fund raise demonstrates the international confidence in our brilliant AI sector and reaffirms Britain’s position as the leading scale-up ecosystem in Europe,” she said.

Despite the confidence shown in it, Wayve faces challenges as it seeks to commercialize its technology, including strict regulatory requirements, intense competition from global rivals such as Waymo and Tesla, and the technical complexity of deploying fully autonomous systems safely at scale.

Following the latest round of investment, Wayve now sits among the top-valued AI companies in Europe, trailing only several others, including French AI star Mistral, German defense company Helsing, and ElevenLabs, a speech synthesis firm co-founded in London by Polish entrepreneurs.

While investor interest surges, European AI companies remain far behind their American counterparts in terms of fundraising and commercialization of their technologies.

Mistral is Europe’s most valuable AI company, with a valuation of just under $12 billion, compared to San Francisco-based OpenAI, which is one of the most valuable private tech companies in the world, valued at $500 billion.

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