Alphabet: Waymo's Importance Is Growing

Richard Durant
8.69K Followers
(7min)

Summary

  • Waymo is the clear leader in the robotaxi market but has failed to capture the imagination of investors due in large part to scalability concerns.
  • Waymo's data acquisition capabilities are rapidly scaling though, which could enable it to introduce a vision-only, end-to-end system within the next few years, assuming this approach is viable.
  • This would enable Waymo to scale globally at a much faster pace and open the door to additional opportunities, like ADAS on consumer vehicles.
  • While Waymo will only ever be a small part of Alphabet's business, success beyond just robotaxis could help to drive returns in coming years.

Alphabet Waymo Storage Facility in San Francisco

JasonDoiy

While Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL)(TSX:GOOG:CA) core search business faces mounting competitive pressure from AI-enabled alternatives, the company is also realizing the benefits of AI in other areas, including self-driving vehicles. Waymo is the clear leader in the robotaxi

This article was written by

8.69K Followers
Richard Durant is the leader of Narweena, an asset manager focused on finding market dislocations that are the result of a poor understanding of a businesses long-term prospects. Narweena believes that excess risk adjusted returns can be achieved by identifying businesses with secular growth opportunities in markets with barriers to entry. Narweena’s research process is focused on company and industry fundamentals with the goal of uncovering unique insights. Narweena has a high risk appetite and a long-term horizon, in pursuit of stocks that are deeply undervalued. Coverage tilts towards smaller cap stocks and markets where competitive advantages are not obvious.Investments are driven by a belief that an aging population with low population growth and stagnating productivity growth will create a different opportunity set to what has worked in the past. Many industries are likely to face stagnation or secular decline, which counter-intuitively may improve business performance if competition decreases. Conversely, other businesses are likely to face rising costs and diseconomies of scale. In addition, economies are becoming increasingly dominated by asset light businesses, and the need for infrastructure investments is declining over time. As a result, a large pool of capital is chasing a limited set of investment opportunities, which is driving up asset prices and compressing risk premia over time.Durant has undergraduate degrees in engineering and finance from the University of Adelaide (Honors) and an MBA from Nanyang Technological University (Dean’s Honors List). He has also passed the CFA exams.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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