Uber posts modest Q4 upside as delivery surges and AV plans expand

Uber closed the December quarter with revenue marginally ahead of consensus and adjusted earnings per share that met investor expectations, though the stock moved lower before the market opened as investors focused on near‑term profitability signals and accounting noise. Delivery drove the strongest percentage growth across the company, while mobility continued to expand and gross bookings topped street estimates, underscoring resilient consumer demand across ride‑hail and food delivery. Reported net income was materially reduced by a large pre‑tax valuation adjustment to equity holdings, which masked much of the operating momentum. Alongside the results, management announced a senior finance leadership change — a new chief financial officer whose remit explicitly includes aligning capital allocation and reporting to support a long‑horizon robotaxi strategy and improve transparency around AV investment burn. Commercially, Uber has deepened supplier arrangements to accelerate AV deployments, including a tranche‑linked financing and deployment agreement with an autonomy software partner intended to underwrite vehicle integrations and speed installations. The company also told regulators and city partners it will begin continuous, customer‑facing autonomous ride‑hail services in Hong Kong, Madrid, Houston and Zurich as early stress tests of its international rollout playbook, while maintaining an ambition to offer AV trips in up to 15 cities by year‑end and to be the largest facilitator of AV trips by 2029. Management stressed that AVs will remain a small share of trips initially, so the near‑term financial picture will continue to hinge on delivery and mobility growth, advertising and subscription adoption, and how the firm reports and finances its AV commitments. Investors will watch the incoming CFO’s actions on cost discipline, clearer segment disclosures isolating AV burn, and concrete partner tranche milestones that define deployment cadence. Key operational metrics to monitor include initial fleet utilization, per‑trip pricing versus human drivers, incident/disengagement rates, and the pace of regulatory approvals — all of which will shape whether early city launches validate the multi‑partner, OEM‑integrated scale model. In the short term, the tranching approach shares integration risk with suppliers and lowers up‑front friction but also signals additional capital commitment and potential near‑term pressure on margins and free cash flow. Over the medium term, if execution, partner financing and regulation align, the moves could accelerate vehicle scale and create an asset‑efficient, higher‑margin automated network; failure on execution, disclosure or financing cadence would heighten investor skepticism about the timeline and returns.