Robotaxis are shaking up the ride-hailing industry, with Waymo, backed by Alphabet (GOOGL), leading the way by completing over 100,000 paid rides per week and planning to expand next year. Tesla (TSLA) is also gearing up to mass-produce its own robotaxis by 2026. As a result, Uber (UBER) is preparing for this shift by teaming up with Waymo to offer self-driving rides on its app. However, Lyft (LYFT) has fallen behind, which could make it a potential buyout target for Amazon (AMZN), according to The Information.
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In fact, Lyft is so far behind Uber that it reportedly has the same market share in San Francisco as Waymo, based on data from Yipit. It is also worth noting that its attempts to enter the self-driving market have not gone so well. Indeed, it previously partnered with Argo AI, but that deal fell apart when the company shut down in 2022. Another setback came when another of its autonomous-driving partners, Motional, paused its Robotaxi rollout. Conversely, Uber has continued to strengthen its presence in the robotaxi market through its own partnerships, which are still holding up.
The Information explains that an Amazon acquisition of Lyft could make sense. With 24 million active riders in Q3 2024, Lyft’s network could help Amazon scale its Zoox self-driving fleet, which it acquired for $1 billion. This would make Zoox robotaxis an immediate and credible threat to Waymo. Furthermore, with a $5 billion enterprise value and $243 million in cash generated last quarter, Lyft’s valuation makes it reasonable and easily affordable for Amazon, which ended September with $75 billion in cash.
Is Amazon Stock Expected to Rise?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on AMZN stock based on 46 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 53% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AMZN price target of $248.84 per share implies 9.2% upside potential.
