Uber targets 50,000 robotaxis in major Rivian, Nvidia deals

In its fourth-quarter earnings report in February, the ride-hailing giant Uber outlined its strategy to expand into autonomous vehicles.

And within a month, it has successfully announced several high-profile partnerships, deepening its push into the emerging AV industry.

The latest moves came this week, involving Uber’s new deals with Rivian and Nvidia.

On Thursday, March 19, under a new agreement with EV maker Rivian, Uber plans to invest up to $1.25 billion and support the deployment of up to 50,000 AVs over time. The initial rollouts are expected to begin in key U.S. markets such as San Francisco and Miami in 2028.

In its March 16 announcement, the company outlined plans to deploy Nvidia-powered Level 4 robotaxis on Uber’s platform beginning in 2027, with expansion across 28 cities globally by 2028. 

The partnership adds to a growing list of AV collaborations that are also reshaping how investors view Uber’s long-term growth strategy.

Uber to invest $1.25 billion in Rivian

In its March 19 announcement, Uber said it intends to invest up to $1.25 billion in the EV maker Rivian (stock up 3.5% midday) by 2031 to accelerate both companies’ AV plans.

The partnership will initially deploy 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis in San Francisco and Miami in 2028 in its first phase. Uber and Rivian expect to expand this to 25 cities by 2031.

Subject to achieving certain AV milestones, Uber has opened the purchase of up to 40,000 more robotaxis in 2030, bringing the total to 50,000 robotaxis in its fleet.

Uber has made an initial $300 million investment toward building a scaled, fully autonomous fleet of Rivian R2 robotaxis, which will be available exclusively through the Uber platform.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Rivian’s expertise and data from its growing vehicle base, along with Uber’s ability to manage commercial fleets, “gives us conviction to set these ambitious but achievable targets.”

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership with Uber — it will help accelerate our path to level 4 autonomy to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world,” said Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe.

Uber stock is down 7% year to date.

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The Uber-Nvidia partnership

The Rivian deal closely follows Uber’s March 16 unveiling of its expanded partnership with Nvidia, which will power the company’s next-generation robotaxi network.

Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion autonomous vehicle platform and Nvidia Alpamayo, a reasoning-based AI model designed to handle unpredictable scenarios such as “erratic pedestrian behavior” or “construction zones,” are at the center of this deployment.

This new software stack will unlock Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, allowing vehicles to drive without human intervention in defined environments.

This agreement will follow a phased deployment, starting with data-collection vehicles to train the Alpamayo system on local driving conditions. 

This rollout will then move to operator-supervised deployments before transitioning to fully driverless Level 4 operations. This structure is designed to support expansion across 28 cities globally by 2028, beginning with launches in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027.

“Autonomous technology holds enormous promise to make transportation safer, more reliable, and more accessible,” said Khosrowshahi.

Wall Street sees Uber AV momentum

Multiple deals have successfully marked the beginning of March for Uber, and analysts are taking note of the company’s position in the AV race.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post, in a recent note shared with TheStreet, said Uber’s expanding network of partners could significantly improve its position.

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This is especially true at a time when competition from Waymo and Tesla, as they scale their AV services, has increased the threat to the existing U.S. rideshare market.

The rising concerns about competitors building their robotaxi fleets can be further eased by the growing number of US L4 OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) suppliers, along with Nvidia’s L4 platform development. Together, they can drive multiple stock expansions for Uber.

BofA’s view is building on the firm’s earlier optimism, which I covered here.

The shifting Uber narrative from a company that may not build AVs to a platform aggregator underscores its ability to become the primary marketplace connecting riders with robotaxi fleets, BofA notes.

“Increasing competition among AV suppliers could also further encourage leading AV OEM’s, including Waymo and Tesla, to make their vehicles available on Uber’s marketplace, and we note the recent Zoox partnership as a proof point in an evolving market.”

Investors may be slightly concerned and question whether it would disrupt Uber’s existing business model as a ride-share giant. 

Uber’s stock was down 1% intraday on Thursday, March 19, after its agreement with Rivian. 

However, over the past five days, Uber gained 3.4% and is up 3.5% this month, although it still remains 7.6% down year to date.

Related: Rivian stock gets shocking upgrade as Iran fears raise the stakes

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