Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) publicly disclosed its financial outcomes for the fourth quarter and entirety of 2025, providing a comprehensive overview of operational progress, financial metrics, and strategic direction during a recent earnings conference call. The discussion highlighted the company’s accelerated platform activity, evolving market leadership, leadership transition, and ongoing investments, particularly in autonomous vehicle technology.
During the conference call, Uber’s management detailed that the platform reached an annual run rate of 15 billion trips and expanded its monthly active user base to over 200 million. These growth indicators contributed to gross bookings rising by 22% year over year in the fourth quarter alone. Over the full year, Uber sustained its trend with a fifth consecutive year of gross bookings growth exceeding 20%. Financially, the company generated $8.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA, marking a 35% increase, alongside a remarkable $9.8 billion in free cash flow, which represented 42% of revenue.
Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi remarked that 2026 began with strong momentum propelled by a scaled and profitable platform poised for durable growth. He articulated confidence in the company’s operating model and ongoing commitment to targeted investments across six strategic areas, with autonomous vehicle services (AVS) being a notable focus. The CEO underscored the firm belief that AVS will unlock a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity, leveraging Uber’s existing strengths such as global scale, demand density, marketplace technology, and operational experience in coordinating riders, drivers, and vehicles in real time.
Khosrowshahi addressed the industry's discussions on autonomy, emphasizing that Uber’s approach continues to be validated by learning from various deployments worldwide. He encouraged stakeholders to review supplemental materials for a detailed exposition on Uber's autonomous vehicle strategy and market positioning.
The call also included the announcement of a CFO transition. Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, the outgoing CFO, who has played a pivotal role in Uber’s financial evolution including achieving investment-grade status and initiating stock repurchases, is stepping down effective February 16. Incoming CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy, described by Khosrowshahi as a seasoned strategist and close collaborator, will assume the role with a deep understanding of the company’s business and strategic priorities.
Prashanth conveyed a positive view on Uber’s future and expressed commitment to a seamless leadership transition. Krishnamurthy detailed his enthusiasm and confidence in building upon Uber’s accelerating core business, growing cash flows, and innovative talent pool to advance Uber’s position as a generational company.
Market participants probed Uber’s competitive positioning, particularly concerning autonomous vehicles. Khosrowshahi provided insights into how AV deployments in key cities, representing approximately 30% of Uber’s bookings, are contributing to overall market growth. He indicated that autonomous vehicles serve more as category amplifiers than mere competitors, citing accelerated gross bookings and new rider engagement in cities like San Francisco, Austin, and Atlanta where AVs are present.
He remarked that autonomous vehicle trips on Uber’s platform show significantly higher utilization rates compared to standalone AV services, reinforcing Uber’s position as the optimal marketplace for such vehicles. Partnerships with firms including Waymo, Nvidia, Wabi, Avride, Neuro, and Lucid are set to expand AV presence to 15 cities by year-end, with plans to extend further.
On margins, the CEO noted that new products such as AV services usually start at lower margins relative to established offerings, improving over time with scale and liquidity. Current AV partnerships are reported to yield positive and fair economic returns for both Uber and its partners.
Incoming CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy added perspective on geographic profit pools, emphasizing that 70% of the U.S. market lies outside top-tier cities, with nearly 75% of profits emanating from those regions. Since AV deployments focus mainly on major cities initially, conventional ride-sharing services like Uber remain dominant elsewhere.
Internationally, Khosrowshahi observed that 60% of Uber’s mobility gross bookings are from outside the U.S., supporting the company's broad market footprint.
Further discussion focused on customer acquisition and retention strategies. Uber highlighted multiple product lines designed to engage diverse demographics and use cases, including a two-wheeler Moto product catering to cost-conscious segments and Reserve services targeting customers needing high reliability in suburban areas. The expanding membership program, which has grown 55% year over year, bolsters customer loyalty and multi-product usage, with 40% of customers now utilizing more than one Uber product.
Financial details revealed an acceleration in monthly active platform consumers (MAPC), growing from 14% to 18% year over year by the end of 2025. This growth results from effective early lifecycle engagement, diversified product offerings, and robust membership adoption, all contributing to improved customer lifetime value relative to acquisition costs.
On the topic of capital deployment, the management reaffirmed a balanced approach, prioritizing reinvestment in core business opportunities, strategic investments in autonomous vehicle initiatives, and selective acquisition activity while maintaining significant cash returns to shareholders through share repurchases. Uber’s ongoing free cash flow generation—approximately $10 billion annually, growing at 40%—enables concurrent investment and capital return, with the current stock price supporting aggressive buyback programs.
Addressing industry concerns about whether autonomous vehicle technology might consolidate to a single dominant player, Khosrowshahi underscored Uber’s status as a winner-take-most platform in mobility and expressed confidence that multiple AV technology suppliers and original equipment manufacturers will coexist. He predicted a future where new vehicles come standard with advanced autonomous software, supported by a diverse supplier ecosystem including Waymo, Pony.ai, Baidu, Wabi, and NVIDIA, among others.
Regarding the deployment timeline for AVs, Krishnamurthy explained a phased plan beginning with consistent baseline supply to meet typical demand troughs, expanding to scale as vehicle platform costs decline and the market expands. Production ramp-up by OEMs will be a crucial factor in reaching tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles on Uber’s network, supported by financial structures akin to real estate investment trusts for non-operator asset ownership. The company expects to make some direct vehicle purchases early on, progressively transitioning to asset-owner models.
Advancements in autonomous vehicle data collection and simulation are critical to market readiness. Uber partners with Nvidia to create a data factory targeting over three million hours of real-world data capturing complex passenger pick-up and drop-off scenarios. This data, combined with simulation capabilities, accelerates AV software validation. Launch conditions in each city involve securing regulatory approvals, establishing operational depots, providing charging infrastructure, and ensuring safety protocols, including staged transitions from supervised to fully autonomous rides.
Uber’s delivery segment is also exhibiting rapid growth, driven by expansion of product selection, focus on less dense markets, new categories such as grocery and retail partnerships, a growing membership base contributing nearly half of gross bookings, and international market penetration. Recent agreements include a multi-year exclusive contract with Australia’s largest grocer, Kohl’s, among others.
In sum, Uber’s 2025 results demonstrate strong platform growth, advancing AV deployment, strategic leadership continuity, and a capital allocation strategy designed to balance innovation investment with sustained shareholder returns. The company positions itself for continued expansion across both mobility and delivery markets, leveraging technology partnerships, diversified products, and international presence to maintain competitive advantage.