Wayve, the UK self-driving tech startup, said that it had raised over $1 billion in its latest funding round.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company announced a $1.05 billion Series C investment round led by SoftBank Group, with contributions from new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft.

The company said the funding would “accelerate its mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence”. The firm is in the process of developing its Embodied AI tech which it said “integrates advanced AI into vehicles and robots to transform how machines interact with, comprehend, and learn from human behaviour in real-world environments, is paving the way for greater usability and safety in autonomous driving systems”.

Wayve, founded in 2017, describes its foundation models for autonomy as “similar to a ‘GPT for driving,” which can “empower any vehicle to see, think, and drive through any environment”.

The firm has raised over $1.3 billion in total, and the latest funding represents the largest investment in a British AI firm.

Alex Kendall, co-founder and chief exec of Wayve, said: “At Wayve, our vision is to develop autonomous technology that not only becomes a reality in millions of vehicles but also earns people’s trust by seamlessly integrating into their everyday lives to unlock extraordinary value.

“This significant funding milestone highlights our team’s unwavering conviction that Embodied AI will address the long-standing challenges the industry has faced in scaling this technology to everyone, everywhere.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, who is looking to establish the country as a hub for AI development, said: “I’m incredibly proud that the UK is the home for pioneers like Wayve who are breaking ground as they develop the next generation of AI models for self-driving cars. The fact that a homegrown British business has secured the biggest investment yet in a UK AI company is a testament to our leadership in this industry and that our plan for the economy is working.”

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