Waymo is in active discussions with Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), Sixth Street, and Blackstone Inc. about a $3 billion debt raise as the robotaxi company seeks to become a global leader in autonomous ride-sharing.
The autonomous driving company is working with Goldman Sachs and is planning to finalize the deal in the next few days, although discussions are still ongoing and could be subject to change, sources familiar with the plans told Bloomberg.
The debt will be unrated and could carry a spread of more than 500 basis points over the benchmark, sources noted.
The debt financing could give capital-markets investors an early opportunity to become familiar with Waymo, following a path taken by other companies in the ride-hailing and autonomous driving industries.
In 2016, Uber Technologies tapped the debt markets, raising $1.15 billion from leveraged-loan investors to help fund its expansion. The company went public three years later and has since become a regular issuer in the debt markets.
Waymo has historically relied on equity financing to fund its growth, raising $16 billion earlier this year at a $126 billion valuation. However, as the company scales its driverless fleet and faces rising costs associated with AI, it is increasingly turning to other sources of capital as it moves towards becoming a more mature business, Bloomberg noted.
Last month, the company announced it had developed a custom chip to improve the performance of its robotaxis.
Waymo is also in the midst of a federal safety investigation after one of its self-driving vehicles struck a 9-year-old girl near a school in Santa Monica, California, earlier this year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is examining the January crash and has received information from Waymo as part of its inquiry into the incident.
The company is targeting 1 million paid rides a week across 20 cities this year. It already provides more than 500,000 paid trips each week across 14 cities and is preparing to test its service in more than a dozen additional markets, including London and Tokyo.
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