Waymo Closes $5 Billion in Debt Financing

Alphabet’s Waymo on Thursday announced that it closed a $5 billion term loan in the self-driving rideshare company’s inaugural debt financing round.

Neither Alphabet nor other equity partners provided a corporate guarantee on the loan, which closed at an upsized amount after the process officially launched over three months ago, said a person familiar with the matter. Waymo offered its intellectual property as collateral, but no physical assets to back the transaction, said the person.

Goldman Sachs arranged the deal, and the debt was provided entirely by external investors. PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street served as lead syndicated lenders, while Capital Group, Loomis Sayles and T. Rowe Price participated as significant lenders. Apollo, Blue Owl, Diameter Capital Partners, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management & Research Company, HPS Investment Partners and Oaktree were among the additional lenders.

Waymo earlier this year closed a $16 billion equity investment, bringing its valuation to $126 billion. In September, it launched service in Las Vegas, its fifteenth U.S. city.