Uber: great at moving people… even better at moving takeout.

The taxi-killer dropped Q4 earnings and (on paper) this thing slapped. Revenue came in at $14.37B, barely clearing estimates, but still up a chunky 20% year-over-year. Not exactly meme-stock fireworks… but solid “grown-a** company” numbers. And yet? Shares dipped anyways (which I’ll get to why in a second).

The real MVP this quarter wasn’t hauling bachelorette parties down Broadway… it was people refusing to put on pants.

Food, groceries, and late-night impulse buys carried the load. Uber’s delivery business ripped 30% higher to $4.9B, blowing past expectations as restaurant orders, grocery runs, and “I’ll regret this later” purchases stacked up fast. Partnerships with OpenTable, Shopify, and a roster of global retailers helped Uber turn “I’m bored” into revenue across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.

Translation: Uber is essentially turning into Amazon Prime… if Prime showed up on a scooter.

And to be fair, the mobility segment didn’t embarrass itself either. Ride-hailing revenue hit $8.2B, up 19% YoY. Not a blowout, but steady enough to keep the lights on while Uber dreams bigger dreams. Gross bookings clocked in at $54.1B, topping expectations, and Q1 guidance suggests bookings could grow another 17%+.

Which tells you demand hasn’t fallen off a cliff… despite inflation, rates, and everyone pretending they’re “cutting back.”

(Source: CNBC)

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi once again hopped on the earnings mic to remind everyone that autonomous vehicles are the future… and that Uber plans to be the toll booth on that highway. According to Dara, Uber is now even more convinced that AVs are a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. Not next quarter. Not next year. Eventually. Very eventually.

Uber says autonomous rides in cities like Atlanta and Austin actually boosted overall trip growth… even for human drivers. Think about that for a second, in markets where robotaxis exist, more people use Uber. It’s almost like people don’t trust robot cars with their lives… crazy right?

Uber plans to facilitate AV trips in up to 15 cities by the end of 2026, and by 2029, Dara wants Uber to be the largest facilitator of autonomous rides on Earth. Obviously, some of that future runs through Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving arm, which already operates robotaxis in San Francisco… sometimes exclusively through the Uber app.

There’s one important caveat though… Dara also admitted AVs will remain a tiny slice of total rides for years. Unlike Elon, he’s acknowledging this will be a long term marathon and isn’t gonna happen overnight.

And because it’s 2026 and nobody is allowed to do an earnings call without saying “AI,” Uber is now integrating ChatGPT to help users discover restaurants and services before checkout. Yes, even deciding what to eat now requires artificial intelligence. We did this to ourselves.

Despite all that, Uber stock is still down 5% this year after a monster 2025 run. Net income fell to $296M, weighed down by a chunky $1.6B pre-tax hit from investment revaluations. That scared just enough people to hit sell.

Needless to say, Uber didn’t mess up. It just didn’t surprise anyone.

(Source: Reuters)

Fundamentally, nothing here is broken. Growth continues, delivery is accelerating, and autonomy remains a long-term lever. But in a market addicted to instant gratification, “steady progress toward a trillion-dollar future” doesn’t always hit like it used to. That said, this one should chalk as a win for the ride hailing giant.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Uber, Google, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.