Wayve, the UK's AI Unicorn, Poised for $2 Billion Funding from Microsoft and SoftBank, Valuing it at $8 Billion

TradingKey - According to the Financial Times, UK-based autonomous driving company Wayve is in talks with Microsoft and SoftBank to secure $2 billion in funding, potentially elevating its valuation to approximately $8 billion.

Wayve, known for its focus on autonomous driving technology, stands as one of the most prominent AI startups in the UK. Last year, the company raised $1 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank, with participation from Microsoft. In September, NVIDIA signed a letter of intent to invest $500 million in Wayve's next funding round. To date, Wayve has secured several billion dollars in cumulative funding.

Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, stated that despite the company's already robust capital base, they decided to accept new investments as the required funding to build foundational models precedes deployment, a necessity in the automotive industry that demands patience. Wayve is working diligently with partners to integrate and deploy its technology.

In April this year, Wayve inked its first agreement with automotive giant Nissan to deploy its technology. Under this agreement, Wayve's software will be installed in Nissan vehicles manufactured in Japan starting in 2027.

However, sources indicated that the negotiations with Microsoft and SoftBank are still in early stages, and the valuation has yet to be finalized.

Unlike mainstream autonomous driving companies, Wayve is renowned for its end-to-end deep learning driving systems. Furthermore, Wayve's technology does not rely on high-precision maps and is hardware-agnostic, allowing its AI driving system to operate without pre-built centimeter-level accuracy maps. This capability enables the system to quickly adapt to new cities and traffic rules by learning from local driving data, and ensures compatibility with various types of sensor suites and vehicle platforms.