Uber has committed more than $10 billion to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in their developers, breaking from its asset-light "gig economy" ‌business model to avoid disruption ​from robotaxis, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Reuters could not immediately verify ⁠the report. Uber did not immediately respond to ​a Reuters request for comment.

Uber is positioning ⁠itself as a marketplace for multiple robotaxi operators, and has partnered across much of the autonomous vehicle industry, including ‌with, Baidu, Rivian, and Lucid, and ​has outlined plans ‌to launch robotaxi services in at least 28 cities by ‌2028.

These deals put Uber on track to invest more than $2.5 billion in equity stakes and ⁠spend over $7.5 billion ‌on robotaxi fleets in ⁠the next few years, FT reported citing their calculations ⁠based ⁠on analyst estimates and people familiar with Uber's deals. The agreements ‌are contingent on its partners hitting certain deployment milestones.

Interest in driverless taxis has surged in recent ‌months after ​years of missed ‌promises, with artificial intelligence and tech partnerships offering hopes of solving complex traffic scenarios ​faster and mitigating high costs.