Uber and Zipline announced a strategic partnership on August 17, 2026, aiming to scale autonomous drone delivery across the United States, with a stated goal of reaching one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 20295.
Under the deal, Uber Eats customers will be able to receive orders in minutes via Zipline's autonomous drones, with the first deployments set to begin later this year. Uber will also make a strategic investment in Zipline, though the financial terms were not disclosed in the available materials.
Uber described the initiative as part of building what it calls a "hybrid delivery network" that integrates couriers, sidewalk robots, and drones. Zipline is characterized as the world's largest drone delivery service7.
Zipline operates on four continents and currently completes a delivery every 20 seconds. The company has logged more than 135 million autonomous miles and completed more than 2.7 million deliveries of more than 20 million items. Its international logistics network serves more than 5,000 hospitals and saves more than 12,000 lives each year, according to the announcement. Zipline says its U.S. service will deliver items in five to ten minutes.
Seeking Alpha quoted the partnership announcement as saying it "combines the superpowers of both companies—offering Zipline's quiet, ultra-fast, precise delivery" to Uber's customer base.
The partnership adds a drone layer to Uber's autonomous logistics strategy. Uber committed up to $1.25 billion to invest in Rivian Automotive and purchase up to 50,000 R2 vehicles for autonomous ride-hailing deployment, a deal announced earlier in August 2026 ctx. Uber also participated in the $1.7 billion equity round raised by Atoms, the robotics and industrial AI company led by Travis Kalanick ctx.
ANALYSIS The Zipline deal extends Uber's autonomous-systems push from ground-based robotaxis into aerial logistics, marking a third major autonomous or robotics-adjacent investment disclosed within roughly a month. The one-million-deliveries-per-day target by end of 2029 would represent a substantial scale-up from Zipline's current cumulative total of 2.7 million deliveries to date, implying daily volumes that would exceed the company's entire historical delivery count within a few days of sustained operation at that rate.