Alphabet said on 28 October 2026 that Waymo has “driven more than 300 million fully autonomous miles” and “operates in 15 major U.S. cities”, in chief executive Sundar Pichai’s third-quarter remarks. In the same quarter, Alphabet’s Other Bets segment, which includes Waymo, had an operating loss of $2.0 billion on revenue of $372 million.
Pichai said Waymo “just recently opened up service to the public in San Antonio, San Diego, and Tampa, with planned expansions into Canada, Germany, Singapore, and Spain.” On the earnings call, chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi tied the Other Bets loss to Waymo’s expansion.
Pichai’s remarks, published on Google’s blog, say: “Waymo is on a great trajectory. We’ve now driven more than 300 million fully autonomous miles.”
Alphabet’s results release puts Other Bets operating loss at $2,047 million in the third quarter, against $1,426 million a year earlier, and its revenue at $372 million, against $344 million. The release says Other Bets revenue comes primarily from autonomous transportation services and internet services.
On the call, according to a caption transcript of the webcast, Ashkenazi said the operating loss was two billion dollars “as we continue to expand Waymo’s business and invest in key other bets.”
U.S. markets or cities Waymo serves, as stated by Alphabet’s chief executive on 4 February, 29 April and 28 October 2026 and by Waymo on 1 September 2026. February’s figure is ‘sixth market’; later figures are ‘major U.S. cities’. Sources: Alphabet CEO remarks; Waymo blog.
Business Pill · Data Flywheel
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on data flywheels, when using a product makes it better. It explains the general idea only and does not discuss Waymo.
The key insight: By our count from Alphabet’s and Waymo’s own statements, Waymo went from six markets on 4 February to 15 major U.S. cities on 28 October, while its stated fully autonomous miles rose from over 200 million to more than 300 million.
From Six Markets to 15 Cities
In his fourth-quarter 2025 remarks on 4 February 2026, Pichai called Miami Waymo’s “sixth market”. On 29 April he said Waymo had “operations in 11 major U.S. cities in total”, with “six new cities so far in 2026”.
Waymo wrote on 1 September that it was welcoming its first public riders in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa, “marking 14 cities where we’re providing riders fully autonomous trips”. On 14 October it wrote that anyone in San Antonio, San Diego, and Tampa could now download the app and hail a ride.
By our count from those statements, Waymo went from six markets on 4 February to 15 major U.S. cities on 28 October, nine more in 266 days. Alphabet used “market” in February and “major U.S. cities” later, and the two terms may not be defined the same way.
The Mileage Figures
Waymo wrote on 24 February 2026: “With over 200 million fully autonomous miles traveled, we are proud to improve road safety in cities where we operate.” On 24 September it said its latest safety analysis “now covers over 270 million miles of fully autonomous operations through the end of June 2026”.
By our arithmetic, the stated total rose by 100 million miles in about eight months, from 24 February to 28 October, or roughly 12 million miles a month. Each figure is a floor, stated as “over” or “more than”, so the actual pace may differ.
Waymo’s stated fully autonomous miles: over 200 million (24 February 2026), over 270 million through 30 June 2026 (published 24 September), more than 300 million (28 October 2026). Each figure is a floor. Sources: Waymo blog; Alphabet CEO remarks.
Rides per Week
Pichai said on 4 February that Waymo was “now providing more than 400 thousand rides every week”, and on 29 April that it “surpassed 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week, doubling in less than a year.”
On 24 February, Waymo co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana said Waymo was “on track to serve over one million rides per week by the end of this year”. Pichai’s 28 October remarks give no weekly rides figure. Waymo’s 20 October post on Madrid refers to “hundreds of thousands of commercial rides served each week”.
How Waymo Is Funded
Alphabet’s fourth-quarter 2025 release says: “In February 2026, Waymo announced an investment round of $16.0 billion, the significant majority of which was funded by Alphabet.” The same release says operating income “included a $2.1 billion employee compensation charge for Waymo”, recognised “primarily reflected in research and development expenses, based on estimated stock valuation”.
On 8 October 2026, Waymo chief financial officer Steve Fieler wrote that Waymo “closed a $5 billion term loan, marking our first debt financing”, with PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street as lead syndicated lenders. The post says: “Last month, we launched service in our fifteenth U.S. city”.
By our sum of those two figures, Waymo has announced $21 billion of new equity and debt in 2026: the $16.0 billion round and the $5 billion loan.
The Cost per City
Alphabet does not report Waymo’s own revenue or loss. As a crude ratio, by our arithmetic, the $2,047 million Other Bets loss works out to about $136 million per Waymo U.S. city in the quarter. That figure overstates any per-city cost of Waymo, because Other Bets also includes other businesses and the loss is not split by city.
As we read the statements, the expansion shows up in cities and miles, while the weekly rides figure is missing from the latest update: Pichai gave 400 thousand-plus in February and 500,000-plus in April, and no weekly figure on 28 October.
Waymo’s own 20 October post still describes “hundreds of thousands of commercial rides served each week”, against the “over one million rides per week by the end of this year” that co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana gave on 24 February.
Alphabet’s chief financial officer linked the $2.0 billion Other Bets loss to expanding Waymo’s business on the call; the filings still do not report Waymo’s own revenue or loss.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet Q3 2026 earnings remarks
“Waymo now operates in 15 major U.S. cities and just recently opened up service to the public in San Antonio, San Diego, and Tampa, with planned expansions into Canada, Germany, Singapore, and Spain.”
Three Implications
FOR ALPHABET’S PROFIT LINE Other Bets lost $2,047 million in the third quarter against $1,426 million a year earlier, according to Alphabet’s release, on revenue of $372 million.
FOR THE RIDES TARGET The most recent weekly figure from Alphabet is the 500,000-plus Pichai gave on 29 April; Waymo’s stated goal is over one million rides per week by the end of 2026.
FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION Pichai named planned expansions into Canada, Germany, Singapore, and Spain; those markets are not among the 15 U.S. cities he counted.
The framework opens: “Every AI paradigm produces a different kind of moat.” It argues that understanding how each data pipeline becomes a moat, and how each moat decays, explains the structure of the AI stack.
Waymo’s stated miles are one such pipeline in physical form: more than 300 million fully autonomous miles across 15 major U.S. cities, by Alphabet’s count. The framework does not discuss Waymo or autonomous driving.
What Is Not Established
Alphabet’s filings combine Waymo with other businesses in Other Bets, which Alphabet says are not individually material, and do not report Waymo’s revenue, loss or fleet size. The mileage and city figures are the companies’ own statements, given as rounded floors, and Alphabet’s and Waymo’s definitions of a market or city are not spelled out in these sources.
The quotations from the earnings call come from a caption transcript of the webcast, not from an official Alphabet transcript.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
Execution Fault Lines, Concentrated Demand, and Geopolitical Firewalls
This week’s issue: the AI build is not short of demand for its parts. It is short of cheap money, and its end revenue rests on a narrow base of large, often venture-funded buyers.
The premium Business Engineer analysis of both 28 October prints: cash conversion, the lengthening backlog and where each company sits on the Map of AI.
Alphabet said on 28 October that Waymo has driven more than 300 million fully autonomous miles and operates in 15 major U.S. cities, up from six markets in February, while Other Bets lost $2.0 billion in the quarter. By our arithmetic, Waymo’s stated mileage rose by 100 million in about eight months, and Pichai’s latest remarks give no update on weekly rides against Waymo’s one-million target for the end of 2026.
A note on sourcing. Figures come from Sundar Pichai’s earnings remarks on Google’s blog (4 February, 29 April and 28 October 2026), Alphabet’s third-quarter 2026 results release (SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Waymo’s own blog posts, and a caption transcript of the 28 October earnings call. Counts, ratios and rates are our arithmetic; linked earlier pieces carry their own sources.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
