Uber Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:UBER) delivered a second-quarter 2025 earnings call packed with updates on autonomous vehicle deals, surging user engagement and long-term platform integration—but it was the company's newly announced $20 billion share buyback that stood out as the clearest signal to Wall Street.
"Returning the cash generated from this enterprise to shareholders remains our number one concern," CFO Prashant Mahendra-Rajah said during the call.
"We've already executed over 60% of our authorization from last spring… this $20 billion is in addition to the roughly $3 billion yet to be executed," he added.
The capital return strategy comes as Uber's free cash flow and GAAP profitability reach record highs, giving the company flexibility to balance both long-term investments and shareholder rewards.
Management reiterated that roughly 50% of the ongoing free cash flow will be dedicated to buybacks.
AV Push Accelerates With New Global Partnerships
Uber is moving aggressively into autonomous vehicles.
The company expanded its AV footprint through ongoing deployments with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta and launched new collaborations with Baidu Inc. (NYSE:BIDU), Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID), and Nuro.
A new deployment with WeRide in Abu Dhabi also went live last quarter.
Waymo vehicles are already among the most productive on Uber's platform, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stating they are "busier than 99% of our human drivers in terms of completed trips per day."
Uber committed to a 20,000-vehicle rollout in its Lucid-Nuro deal, which executives believe will yield better long-term unit economics than traditional models.
Uber expects multiple business models to co-exist on its platform, including merchant, agency and licensing structures.
On user metrics, Uber’s monthly active platform consumers (MAPCs) surged by 10 million in the quarter, reaching new records.
Uber One membership hit 36 million users, up 60% year over year.
Platform integration is also deepening: consumers using both Mobility and Delivery services generate triple the gross bookings and have 35% higher retention, according to the company.
"Fewer than one in five of our consumers are active across both mobility and delivery, and we believe this can and will go much higher over time," Khosrowshahi said.
"We are slowly kind of moving towards a super app of sorts," Uber’s CEO added.
To strengthen its super-app ambitions, Uber has appointed Andrew Macdonald as chief operating officer, placing him in charge of integrating Mobility and Delivery operations, along with platform areas such as advertising and autonomous driving.
Uber also introduced "surge savings" to Uber One, a new benefit targeting rider frustration during peak pricing, as it seeks to increase membership utility in Mobility, not just Delivery.
Strong Results, Slight Market Reaction
Despite the call's ambitious tone, Uber was trading lower at the time of publication on Wednesday, as investors weighed long-term investments against near-term profitability.
Gross bookings for the second quarter hit $46.76 billion, beating Wall Street's $46.41 billion estimate. Mobility posted $23.76 billion in bookings, while Delivery came in at $21.73 billion. Revenue rose to $12.65 billion, exceeding the $12.47 billion consensus.
Earnings per share stood at $0.63, in line with analyst forecasts. For the third quarter, Uber guided for bookings between $48.25 billion and $49.75 billion, well above Street expectations of $47.48 billion.
Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan said the results reflect "positive progression in terms of free cash conversion" and reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $110 price target, implying 23% upside.
UBER Price Action: Uber Technologies shares were down 2.04% at $87.57 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.
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