Uber has sold off its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous sidewalk delivery company that spun out of its operations more than five years ago. The disclosure appeared in a regulatory filing first reported by Bloomberg. The exit had been building for some time, with earlier filings showing Uber gradually reduced its position through 2025, but the final divestiture reportedly came as a surprise to Serve Robotics, which learned of it only after the official disclosure, according to a source familiar with the events. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Serve Robotics originated as Postmates X, the robotics division of on-demand delivery startup Postmates, which Uber acquired in 2020 for $2.65 billion. Serve was spun out as an independent company in 2021, taking its name from the autonomous sidewalk delivery bot developed and piloted under Postmates. Beyond its equity position, Uber struck a commercial partnership with Serve in 2022 and expanded it in May 2023 to deploy up to 2,000 sidewalk delivery bots on the Uber Eats platform across multiple U.S. markets. That relationship made Uber one of Serve’s most important commercial channels for scaling its fleet.
The commercial relationship has begun to diverge. During Serve’s second-quarter earnings call on August 6, co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani said delivery volume through Uber had grown for 17 consecutive quarters from Q1 2022 through Q1 2026, but reversed in the second quarter due to lower-than-expected robot utilization. He said the companies hold differing views on the operating model for scaling their shared autonomous fleet, including fleet coordination and merchant integration. Over the same period, Serve reported that deliveries through another food delivery partner grew nearly 50 percent in a single quarter. Kashani said Serve did not expect to renew its partnership agreement with Uber when it expires in early 2027.
The exit illustrates how partnerships between platform operators and specialized robotics providers can shift as operational realities diverge from initial strategic frameworks. Serve is one of more than 30 autonomous vehicle technology companies Uber has partnered with or invested in over recent years, part of a portfolio approach that allows Uber to prune positions without committing to any single autonomous provider. For Serve, the loss of Uber both as an investor and as an anchor delivery partner represents a significant transition, though the reported growth with alternative food delivery partners suggests the company has been diversifying its commercial base ahead of the split. How Serve’s fleet economics and volume trajectory hold up outside the Uber channel will be the key indicator of the company’s independent commercial footing.
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