Introduction

In early February 2026, Google's parent company, Alphabet, dropped two major bombshells:

The first: Money. It launched the issuance of approximately $20 billion in bonds to support its staggering $185 billion in capital expenditures for 2026. The focus of this funding? AI chips and data centers—an “arsenal” prepared for the next-generation AI war.

The second: Territory. Its autonomous driving subsidiary, Waymo, announced the launch of fully driverless (no safety operator) operations in Nashville, Tennessee. This marks another city conquered in the U.S.

These two moves, while seemingly independent, are actually two sides of the same coin: one side is an unprecedentedly powerful capital engine, and the other is a continuously expanding commercial footprint.

Alphabet is making it abundantly clear to the world in the most straightforward way possible: there are no shortcuts on the road to the autonomous driving future. Only by piling up huge investments (massive investments) to build technological barriers and measuring out market territory inch by inch through operational mileage can progress be made.

Not long ago, Waymo and Tesla anxiously warned of the “China threat” during U.S. congressional hearings. Now, Google has responded with action: the way to meet challenges is not through panic, but through even more aggressive financing and faster city expansions.

A “Super Mario Kart”-style game to define the future of transportation has entered its most cash-intensive and critical lap-based showdown phase.

(For further reading, click: “20 Million Rides, World No. 1! Google’s Waymo Raises $16 Billion: Valuation Soars to $110 Billion! Is the ‘Final Battle’ for Autonomous Driving Underway?”)

I. $185 Billion in Capital Expenditures and $20 Billion in Bonds: Not “Burning Money,” but Building the Foundation for ‘AI Hegemony’

What does $185 billion in annual capital expenditures mean? It exceeds the annual defense budgets of most countries and could buy several leading global automakers outright.

Google is focusing this investment on AI chips and data centers, with a strategic intent that couldn’t be clearer: it aims to firmly control the “means of production” in the AI era—computing power.

Autonomous driving, especially systems at L4 level and above, is a “money-gulping beast” when it comes to AI computing power consumption.

Whether it’s Waymo’s virtual world simulation testing (hundreds of billions of kilometers per week) or Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer training vision-based large models, both require astronomical computing resources.

In the past, tech companies could rent cloud services. But in the ultimate AI competition where survival is at stake, self-built, controllable, and top-tier computing infrastructure has become a more core strategic asset than the algorithms themselves.

Google’s issuance of $20 billion in bonds to support this spending reveals a harsh reality: future AI competition will be a comprehensive national strength contest at the “state + giant” level.

It tests not only engineers’ creativity but also a company’s balance sheet, cash flow, and capital market appeal.

This move sends chills down the spines of Waymo’s competitors (especially startups).

Because their opponent is no longer just an independent autonomous driving division but the “Alpha Star” parent entity behind it, capable of supplying it with unlimited, low-cost capital.

Google is building an exclusive, widest “data superhighway” for Waymo.

II. The Deeper Meaning of ‘Nashville’: Waymo’s Driverless Cars Move from ‘Tech Enclaves’ to the ‘Heartland’

Waymo’s launch of fully driverless operations in Nashville carries symbolic significance on par with its commercial implications.

Reviewing Waymo’s expansion map: it started in Phoenix, Arizona (a “beginner-friendly” city with pleasant climate and orderly roads) and gradually conquered tech or culturally specific cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta.

These places are either innovation hubs or highly receptive to new technologies.

Nashville, however, is the country music capital of the U.S., representing a more mainstream Midwestern American culture and lifestyle.

Choosing Nashville marks Waymo’s attempt to transform its driverless service from a “tech toy for coastal elites” into a “daily service penetrating the American heartland.”

This is a critical brand and market positioning leap.

The underlying message is:

Our technology can work not just in sunny Silicon Valley but also stably in the climate-diverse ‘Music City.’

It can be accepted not just by tech enthusiasts but also integrated into the lives of ordinary American citizens.

With over 2,500 operational vehicles covering diverse cities from the West Coast to the East Coast, from deserts to rainforests, Waymo is weaving the largest nationwide driverless service network in the U.S.

Every node in this network is both a revenue source and a data feedback terminal, collectively feeding an increasingly intelligent central AI brain.

III. The ‘Mirror Showdown’ Between U.S. and Chinese Paths: Ecosystem Positioning vs. Scene Deep Cultivation

When viewing Google/Waymo’s recent moves alongside concurrent developments in Chinese autonomous driving, an intriguing “mirror showdown” emerges.

The U.S. Path (Represented by Google): High-profile, ecosystem positioning.

Core: Leveraging massive capital and top-tier general AI technology to build a top-down, hardware-software integrated ultimate solution. The goal is to define the future traffic operating system.

Strategy: Directly providing Robotaxi services through Waymo to control mobility access points; investing heavily in self-developed AI chips (e.g., TPUs) and cloud computing infrastructure to control underlying computing power. It attempts to construct a vertically closed ecosystem from underlying computing power, mid-level algorithms, to upper-level application services, ultimately becoming the “infrastructure” of the intelligent transportation era.

Challenge: Extremely cash-intensive, with a long path to commercial closure, facing severe regulatory and public trust challenges (e.g., recent question (doubts) raised by a primary school incident).

The Chinese Path (Diverse Approaches): Scene-driven, pragmatic deep cultivation.

Core: Utilizing complex, rich application scenarios and efficient industrial collaboration to achieve bottom-up, multi-point scalable deployments.

Strategy: Not overly fixated on the “holy grail” of full autonomy but instead disaggregating autonomous driving technology into solutions of varying granularity for injection into niche scenarios where commercial value can be generated fastest:

Neolix/Baixiniu: Achieving global No. 1 scale in logistics delivery.

Apollo Go: Pioneering the “driverless + cultural tourism” track, launching themed routes in over a dozen cities.

Caocao Mobility/Pony.ai: Collaborating with automakers and high-end service providers to explore differentiated Robotaxi services (premium, hub-to-hub transfers).

Shangqi Group/Bluewise Technology: Achieving global sales of unmanned equipment in closed scenarios like industrial manufacturing and mining.

Challenge: Technical originality and generality need strengthening; overly dispersed efforts may lead to unfocused resources, ultimately still requiring testing in the complex open-road game.

On one side, a “giant warship” bears down; on the other, a “wolf pack” charges forward.

U.S. giants attempt to build a “Noah’s Ark” to the future, while Chinese players resemble a flexible special forces unit, seizing one hilltop after another across different terrains.

The former wins in system depth; the latter excels in agility and speed.

IV. The Next Round of the ‘Definition Rights’ Battle: Data Closed Loops and Commercial Positive Cycles

Waymo’s $126 billion valuation and popular (explosive) financing indicate that capital markets still believe in the ultimate story of “general-purpose autonomous driving.”

But for this story to continue, the key point is shifting from “whether the technology can be achieved” to “whether a commercialized data closed loop can be achieved.”

Google’s massive capital expenditures aim to build stronger data production and processing capabilities.

Every new operational route Waymo launches contributes real interaction data to this closed loop.

The ideal state is: more capital → stronger computing power and more vehicles → broader operations → more data → better algorithms → better services and lower costs → stronger profitability and higher valuations → attracting more capital.

In China, commercial closed-loop validation comes more directly.

Neolix’s unmanned vehicles deliver orders; Apollo Go’s tourists pay for rides; Shangqi’s unmanned forklifts are purchased by factories.

Their closed loops are shorter, focusing on proving “technology investment can yield economic returns” within single scenarios.

Future competition will be a marathon between these two closed-loop models.

Will U.S. giants rely on strong capital to first achieve a grand closed loop of “general AI-large-scale mobility,” or will Chinese players leverage scene advantages to first establish unshakable commercial barriers in multiple verticals, ultimately “surrounding cities from the countryside”?

V. Conclusion: An ‘Infinite Game’ Without an End

Google’s $20 billion bond issuance and Waymo’s new city launch clearly mark the next milestone in this race: it has entered an “infinite game” phase.

Victory in this game is no longer determined by single technological breakthroughs but by sustained capital investment capacity, endurance in large-scale operations, breadth in ecosystem construction, and the wisdom to translate technology into sustainable business models.

For Chinese players, the alarm has already sounded.

Merely satisfying with “making money” in specific scenarios is insufficient; they must look ahead and consider how to transform scene advantages into more foundational, general-purpose technological capabilities and data assets.

Meanwhile, China’s vast market, complex scenarios, and complete industrial chain remain globally unique “strategic depths.”

As Google’s capital steamroller rumbles forward and China’s scene-based special forces strike from all directions, what we’re witnessing is not just the maturation of autonomous driving technology but a profound rehearsal for how future societies will be organized and resources allocated.

Behind the wheelless era, the logic of competition has already transcended the wheels themselves.

In short, We Come for Autonomous Vehicles (WeChat ID: wurenchelaiye) believes: Google’s $20 billion in bonds and Waymo’s Nashville launch collectively send a clear signal: in the AI and autonomous driving marathon, there are no shortcuts. Only through sustained heavy investment and real-world scalable operations can insurmountable competitive barriers be erected. For global tech firms, this is both a wake-up call and a roadmap—tech fantasies will fade; only “hard tech” that can operate on real streets and support trillion-parameter training will win the future. What do you think, dear?

#WeComeForAutonomousVehicles #Driverless #AutonomousDriving #SelfDrivingCars