Uber sells off its entire stake in Serve Robotics

Uber has sold its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous sidewalk delivery robot company that spun out of the ride-hailing giant more than five years ago. Uber disclosed the sale in a regulatory filing first reported by Bloomberg; the exit has been brewing for at least a year, with earlier filings showing the company reduced its stake through 2025.

The final selloff still came as a surprise to Serve, which learned about it only once it was officially disclosed, according to a source familiar with the events. Uber could not be immediately reached for comment. The divestiture comes as the two once-tight companies have started to diverge on the business side.

Serve traces back to Postmates X, the robotics division of on-demand delivery startup Postmates, which Uber acquired in 2020 for $2.65 billion. A year later, the division spun out as the independent Serve Robotics, named after the sidewalk delivery bot Postmates X had developed and piloted. Uber backed Serve and struck a partnership with it in 2022, expanding the deal in May 2023 to deploy up to 2,000 of Serve’s sidewalk bots onto Uber’s app across multiple U.S. markets.

The relationship appears to have already been fraying before the sale: Uber started pulling back earlier this year, according to comments made during Serve’s second-quarter earnings call — before Uber sold its shares. Delivery volume through Uber grew for 17 consecutive quarters from the first quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of this year, then reversed for the first time in the second quarter, which Serve co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani attributed to “lower-than-expected robot utilization.” Kashani said on the August 6 call that Uber and Serve have “differing views” on the operating model for scaling their shared autonomous fleet, including fleet coordination and merchant integration, while deliveries with another food-delivery partner grew nearly 50% in a single quarter over the same stretch. As a result, Kashani said at the time, Serve didn’t expect it would make sense to renew its partnership agreement with Uber when it expires in early 2027.

Serve Robotics is one of more than 30 autonomous vehicle technology companies Uber has partnered with or invested in over the past several years.

Why it matters

The split shows how quickly a flagship robotics partnership can sour once utilization falls short, and leaves Serve needing a new anchor distribution partner ahead of its Uber contract’s 2027 expiration.