Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said that artificial intelligence (AI) applications have boosted productivity and forced the company to slow down hiring.
Uber Blew Through AI Budget In A Quarter
In an interview with investor Patrick O’Shaughnessy on Wednesday, Khosrowshahi was asked how Uber was managing AI spending. “We blew through our AI budget in a quarter, for the whole year essentially,” the Uber CEO said, adding that the spending had forced the ride-hailing company to adjust its hiring goals.
“We are going to meter headcount increases,” he said, adding that the slowdown was because Uber engineers were “getting much more efficient” and that their productivity had increased.
The CEO then shared how the productivity increase came with a “significant cost,” reiterating that Uber was “metering” the increase in headcount. “My view right now is, drive adoption, encourage usage across the company,” Khosrowshahi said.
Uber-Anthropic Cost
Khosrowshahi’s comments echoed Uber’s Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga, who reportedly said that Uber’s spending on Anthropic‘s AI model Claude code had blown past internal expectations.
Uber’s R&D spending rose 9% to $3.4 billion in 2025 and the company expects that to keep rising. Uber’s AI exploits have shown results, with 11% of the company’s live backend code now written by AI agents.
Uber’s Robotaxi Bet
Uber recently outlined that it was shifting from a ride-sharing marketplace dependent on human drivers into an open platform that would blend gig workers with third-party autonomous vehicle fleets.
Uber also committed to investing $10 billion into the Robotaxi bet, with a $2.5 billion investment commitment to acquire equity stakes in Robotaxi companies, as well as over $7.5 billion to increase its fleet size in the next few years.
Uber offers excellent Growth score, but fails to provide a favorable price trend in the short, medium, and long term.
Price Action: Uber Technologies shares were down 0.57% at $71.28 while the market was closed on Wednesday.
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