Uber will invest $300 million in electric vehicle maker Lucid as part of a deal to launch autonomous ride services, the companies said Thursday.
The plan will begin with one major U.S. city late next year and marks Uber’s renewed push into the robotaxi space.
Starting in 2026, Uber will acquire and operate more than 20,000 Lucid Gravity SUVs over six years. These vehicles will be equipped with autonomous driving technology from Nuro, a startup that supplies self-driving systems to automakers.
The investment is part of a larger agreement involving both Lucid and Nuro. Uber will invest hundreds of millions in both companies, with $300 million going directly to Lucid, according to a separate regulatory filing. A prototype of the Lucid-Nuro robotaxi is already running autonomously at a test facility in Las Vegas.
Lucid’s interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said the company is expanding into new areas beyond EV manufacturing, including partnerships focused on autonomous mobility. Nuro, which was founded by former Waymo engineers, said it is in talks to supply its technology to personal vehicles for consumers as well.
Lucid shares jumped more than 26% on the news, reaching $2.95, though they remain down about 24% this year.
Uber exited its own autonomous vehicle operations in 2020 but has since shifted toward partnerships with tech developers such as Waymo and Aurora. The deal with Lucid follows an earlier agreement with Volkswagen to use its ID.Buzz vans for robotaxi services in Los Angeles starting in 2026.
Other companies in the robotaxi market include Tesla, which launched a limited trial in Austin with its Model Y, and Waymo, which now operates in multiple U.S. cities and recently crossed 100 million miles of autonomous driving. Amazon’s Zoox is also testing vehicles without manual controls and plans to begin service in Las Vegas later this year.
Nuro will still need to secure state-level operating licenses for commercial use, although it holds some approvals from its earlier delivery programs.
Separately, Lucid said it has proposed a one-for-ten reverse stock split of its class A common stock.
