Cruise did something similar with GM.<p>I take this as a bad sign. If Alphabet felt the project was going well, they wouldn't want to give equity away unless the price was very, very high. It might be, I haven't looked.<p>I think situation like this test the limits of conglomerates, and are an interesting case study in corporate governance. Waymo is too big to fail -- even if it's not working, too many peoples' names and careers are on the line, such that they'll do everything they can to keep it going, even if doing so isn't in the shareholders interests. So Alphabet's board has to put some controls in place to ensure ongoing investment into this is, in fact, sound. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some requirement internally that a certain % of Alphabet capital be matched with external investment - that seems to get some of the disciplining effects of the market, but still lets Alphabet keep most/all of the ownership.