Uber Spent Its Entire 2026 AI Budget in 4 Months. It Just Found a Way to Fix It.

Uber (UBER) has been managing to pull off something rare in the AI era. It has kept its AI spending flat since April, even as usage inside the company has skyrocketed. Weekly requests to its AI agents have jumped more than nine times since February, yet the total bill hasn’t followed. On a per-use basis, costs have fallen sharply. The cost of every thousand requests is down about 34% from its April peak, and a single session now costs 52% less than it did in June. Uber got there by routing simple tasks to cheaper AI models and saving the expensive ones for tougher jobs. It also caps how much each session can use and shows engineers what their AI use is costing in real time. 

For investors, here’s why all of this matters. Uber blew its entire 2026 AI budget in four months before tightening up. Its net margin slipped from 27% to 17.3% in a year, and the stock fell after its last earnings report as the market worried about those very margins. On top of it, Uber is about to spend over $10 billion on self-driving cars. So the company potentially saving significantly on costs is precisely what investors needed to hear. AI agents now account for more than 70% of Uber’s code-change submissions, and engineers run over 30,000 agent tasks a day. Management says this lets it slow hiring while doubling the code each engineer produces. 

In short, AI is helping Uber grow without adding people at the same pace. That is the quiet reason this matters. The same AI Uber is spending billions on may also be what protects its profits along the way. 

About Uber Technologies Stock

Uber Technologies develops and operates proprietary technology applications. The company operates through three segments: Mobility, Delivery, and Freight. The Mobility segment connects consumers with a range of transportation modalities, such as ridesharing, carsharing, rentals, and other modalities. The Delivery segment allows consumers to order food, groceries, convenience items, and other products through Uber Eats while also providing delivery solutions for merchants. The Freight segment manages transportation and logistics networks. Founded in 2009, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. 

Over the past year, Uber shares have fallen roughly 18%, dropping from above $95 to around $78. In comparison, the S&P 500 ($SPX) gained approximately 19% during the same time period. Despite strong quarterly results, UBER stock declined due to investor concerns over the long-term impact of autonomous vehicles and uncertainty surrounding its relationship with Waymo. The trend has continued this year as well, with the stock declining 4% year-to-date (YTD), whereas the S&P 500 gained 13% during the same period.

Uber’s valuation seems reasonable by most traditional measures. The forward price-to-earnings (P/E) of 23.92x is a fairly normal multiple for a profitable, growing company this size. The forward price-to-sales (P/S) of 2.77x sits about 7% below its 5-year average of 2.98x. So UBER stock is trading slightly cheaper than its own history despite years of strong growth. The EPS outlook is uneven on paper. Analysts expect earnings to fall 30% in 2026, then recover strongly with a growth of 41% in 2027, 24% in 2028, and 19% in 2029. That 2026 dip is less alarming than it looks. The fall mostly reflects a large investment gain in 2025 rather than a decline in the core business, which keeps growing. 

The balance sheet carries a net debt of over $9 billion. This isn’t ideal, but it seems manageable for a company generating more than $10 billion in annual free cash flow. For investors, the concern is margins, which is why the AI cost discipline matters so much. If Uber can protect profitability while it spends on self-driving cars, the stock could look cheap in hindsight. 

Uber Unveils Multi-Year Autonomous Vehicle Growth Strategy

Uber Technologies reported its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Aug. 5. It posted revenue of $14.19 billion, down 0.21% from the $14.22 billion forecast. The earnings per share came in at $0.81, beating the Wall Street consensus of $0.80. Gross bookings grew 22% year-over-year (YoY) to more than $58 billion. The company’s trailing 12-month free cash flow was above $10 billion for the first time. CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy said mobility revenue margin showed a nearly 500 basis points decline YoY, with about 400 basis points from a UK business model change. He added the company’s mobility operating income margin remains very strong at 7.6%. On capital allocation, CFO Krishnamurthy said the company bought back about $3.5 billion of its stock this year and deployed about $4 billion of capital in the second quarter. 

Looking forward, Uber expects U.S. mobility growth to keep accelerating through the rest of 2026. Management said delivery trends should remain relatively healthy in the third quarter, even as the business faces some organic and inorganic headwinds. CEO Khosrowshahi reiterated AV deployment milestones and said that the company expects to be live in 15 cities by year-end. This includes launching Nuro Lucid in the Bay Area, Zoox in Vegas, and Wayve in London and Tokyo. This shows that the company’s longer-term strategy remains centered on three areas: mobility, delivery, and autonomous vehicles. 

What Do Analysts Expect for UBER Stock?

Following strong earnings, Jefferies analyst John Colantunoi raised the firm’s price target on UBER stock from $100 to $110 and kept a “Buy” rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned for 2027 because it continues to deliver sustainable bookings growth and makes progress scaling U.S. autonomous vehicles. Similarly, TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge reiterated a “Buy” rating with a price target of $118. The analyst’s price target reflects a 55% upside from the current levels. 

UBER stock holds a consensus “Strong Buy” rating with 47 Wall Street analysts covering the stock. Out of those, 35 have a “Strong Buy” rating, four have a “Moderate Buy” rating, seven have a “Hold” rating, and one has a “Strong Sell” rating. The mean price target of $103.60 reflects a potential 31% upside from its current price. UBER has a high price target of $150 and a low price target of $72.