Business12 August, 20262 min read
Uber Sells Entire Stake In Serve Robotics After Postmates Spinout
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Uber sold its entire stake in Serve Robotics, ending the partnership. Disclosure came via regulatory filing, first reported by Bloomberg.
Uber exits Serve stake
Uber sold its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous delivery robot company that spun out of Uber’s Postmates unit, and the sale was disclosed in a regulatory filing first reported by Bloomberg and later covered by TechCrunch. TechCrunch said Uber’s exit had been brewing for at least a year, with regulatory filings showing the company reduced its stake in 2025 before the final selloff, and Serve learned of the sale only once it was officially disclosed.
Serve’s partnership history traces to Uber’s 2020 acquisition of Postmates for $2.65 billion, followed by the robotics unit spinning out as Serve Robotics in 2021 and a 2022 partnership to deploy sidewalk delivery robots. In May 2023, the companies expanded cooperation to deploy up to 2,000 Serve sidewalk delivery robots on the Uber app across multiple U.S. markets, but Serve’s second-quarter earnings release showed warning signs as robot utilization fell below expectations.
Earnings call and surprise
Serve Robotics co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani told investors that “From the first quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of this year, delivery volume through Uber grew for 17 consecutive quarters,” but that “In Q2, that trend reversed for the first time.” Kashani said the reversal was “caused by lower-than-expected robot utilization,” and he also described “differing views” with Uber on the operating model to scale a shared autonomous fleet, including “fleet coordination or merchant integration.”
TechCrunch reported that Serve did not expect the partnership to be renewed when it expires in early 2027, and that Uber could not be immediately reached for comment after the regulatory disclosure. The Tech Buzz framed the same divestiture as a surprise, saying Uber sold its entire equity position “without giving the company advance notice,” and it linked the shock to strategic divergence between the two firms.
What comes next
The divestiture ends a partnership that Serve expected would not be renewed when it expires in early 2027, and Serve’s stated rationale centered on operational disagreements over scaling a shared autonomous fleet. Uber’s broader robotics posture is described in the sources as part of a shift toward other autonomous vehicle efforts, with one article noting Uber has invested in or partnered with more than 30 autonomous vehicle technology companies in recent years.
The Tech Buzz also pointed to Uber’s focus on robotaxis and larger autonomous delivery vehicles, while Serve’s sidewalk robots were described as delivering single restaurant orders within a couple of miles. Pluang added that Serve does not plan to renew its partnership with Uber when it expires in 2027, and it tied the exit to a pullback after a decline in robot delivery volume through Uber’s platform.