Waabi Just Raised $1 Billion. Should We Be Worried About All This AI Money?

The Waabi funding news landed this week, and it made me pause. Another AI company I’d barely heard of just raised a billion dollars.

They secured $1 billion in new funding to build self driving trucks and robotaxis. Uber, Nvidia, Volvo, Porsche, and BlackRock all wrote checks. It’s the largest private fundraise in Canadian history.

Impressive? Sure. But I keep asking myself the same question. Are we setting ourselves up for a spectacular crash?

What Waabi Does With This Funding

Waabi uses simulation first “Physical AI” to train one unified brain for both autonomous trucks and robotaxis, with plans to deploy 25,000 vehicles exclusively on Uber’s platform.

Raquel Urtasun founded Waabi in 2021 after running Uber’s autonomous vehicle research lab. When people talk about experts in self driving technology, her name comes up consistently.

The company takes a different approach than competitors like Waymo and Cruise. Instead of driving millions of real world miles to train their AI, they built a simulator. Their AI practices driving in every possible scenario before touching an actual road. Rain, snow, construction zones. All simulated first.

They call this “Physical AI.” One AI brain powers both trucks and robotaxis. The Uber partnership means Waabi will deploy at least 25,000 autonomous vehicles exclusively on Uber’s platform.

Why the Waabi Funding Round Concerns Me

AI startups captured nearly 50% of all global venture funding in 2025 at $202 billion, up from $114 billion in 2024, with SoftBank alone putting $40 billion into OpenAI.

This is where I start getting nervous. Waabi isn’t an outlier. They’re part of a pattern.

AI companies captured nearly 50% of all global venture funding in 2025. That’s $202 billion invested in AI startups in a single year. Up from $114 billion in 2024. SoftBank put $40 billion into OpenAI alone.

I’ve started joking with friends that maybe I should start an AI company. It seems like they’re giving money away. Come up with a pitch, use the words “AI” and “revolutionary” in the same sentence, and apparently you can raise nine figures.

The AI Bubble Question

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, whose company is valued at $134 billion, has publicly called the trend of billion dollar AI startups with zero revenue “clearly a bubble” and “insane.”

I’m not the only one thinking this way.

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi runs a $134 billion software company. He recently called out AI startups with billions in funding but zero revenue. His exact words? “That’s clearly a bubble, right… it’s, like, insane.”

The pattern looks familiar. Money flows in faster than profits emerge. Valuations climb while revenue lags. We saw this with crypto. We saw it with the dot com boom. The question isn’t whether some of these companies will fail. It’s how many and how hard. For more on how AI is reshaping business, check our AI news coverage.

Why Waabi Might Justify Its Valuation

Unlike many AI startups burning cash on chatbot wrappers, Waabi has a concrete deployment plan with paying customers, active driverless truck testing in Texas, and a $250 million Uber partnership that creates a direct revenue path.

Let me push back on my own skepticism for a second.

Every AI company raising money right now isn’t just a ChatGPT wrapper with no business model. Freight trucking is massive. Driver shortages are real. If autonomous trucks work, the economics make sense. If you’re curious about how AI tools actually work in practice, our Start Here guide breaks it down.

Waabi has a specific deployment plan. They’re testing driverless trucks in Texas right now. They have paying customers. The Uber partnership creates a clear path to revenue. And their technology has physical constraints that create moats. You can’t copy their simulator overnight.

What Still Worries Me About This Investment

Self driving technology has been “almost here” for a decade, and even Alphabet’s Waymo still operates in limited geographies after billions in investment. That raises real questions about whether simulation trained trucks can close the gap to profitability.

Self driving has been “almost here” for a decade. Remember when everyone said 2020 would be the year of the robotaxi? It’s 2026 and Alphabet’s Waymo still operates in limited areas. (I’ve seen the Waymo taxis countless times in downtown Austin, though, so progress is real.)

The simulation to reality gap is notoriously difficult. Trucking has brutal economics too. Low margins. High competition. Even if the tech works perfectly, can Waabi operate cheaper than human drivers when you factor in Nvidia sensors, compute power, monitoring, and insurance?

When the correction comes, and corrections always come, the fallout won’t just hit investors. It’ll hit employees. It’ll make future investors cautious about funding truly promising technology.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this time is different. But I’ve been around long enough (40 years) to know that “this time is different” are the four most expensive words in investing.

Waabi Funding FAQ

What is Waabi and who founded it?

Waabi is an autonomous trucking and robotaxi company based in Toronto. Raquel Urtasun founded it in 2021 after leading Uber’s self driving research. The company uses AI simulation to train vehicles instead of relying solely on real world testing.

How much did Waabi raise and who invested?

Waabi raised $1 billion total. That includes a $750 million Series C led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, plus $250 million from Uber. Other investors include Nvidia, Volvo, Porsche, and BlackRock.

Are we in an AI bubble?

Opinions vary. AI captured 50% of all venture funding in 2025 at $202 billion. Some executives like Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi call it “clearly a bubble.” Others argue it’s a natural cycle around transformative technology. Nobody knows for certain until after the fact.

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A billion dollars is a lot of trust to place in any single company. Time will tell if Waabi earns it.

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