Self-driving truck startup Waabi’s billion-dollar fundraise isn’t just about trucks.

The deal, for $750 million up front plus another $250 million from Uber tied to deployment milestones, feels like another chip from Uber on the autonomous vehicle roulette table. With more than 20 AV partners worldwide, the question isn’t just whether Waabi can deliver on its plans to deploy over 25,000 robotaxis, but whether Uber’s bet-on-everything strategy actually works.

On TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane and Anthony Ha discussed Uber’s AV partnership strategy, why Waabi’s “simulation-first” approach might be different, and more of the week’s headlines.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

02:13 Palmer Luckey’s bold recruiting strategy

04:04 Phia raises $35M for sustainable shopping

06:27 Browser extensions & the privacy problem

09:59 Northwood Space’s $100M Series B & Space Force contract

12:17 The rise of dual-use space companies

14:01 Waabi’s $1B valuation & beyond trucking

16:36 Uber’s strategy: Betting on every AV partner

19:12 TikTok’s US deal & immediate outage

21:46 TikTok competitors gain ground

24:03 IPO window opening: Ethos, Serve, and SpaceX

27:57 Will Elon actually take SpaceX public this time?

29:11 Outro

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