Asia Tech Wire (May 8) -- Japan's SoftBank Group has led a $1.05 billion Series C funding round for U.K. self-driving startup Wayve Technologies Ltd.

Wayve announced Tuesday it raised more than $1 billion in funding as it looks to accelerate the pace of redefining "autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence."

SoftBank led the $1.05 billion Series C round, with participation from new investor Nvidia and existing investor Microsoft.

The $1.05 billion deal is set to be one of the largest funding rounds in the European AI sector to date.

Founded in 2017, Wayve said it "was the first to develop and test an end-to-end (e2e) AI autonomous driving system on public roads."