Rumor: Alphabet Invests Billion Dollars in Lyft

Alphabet is reportedly negotiating a potential investment with Lyft. The parent company of Google would be willing to invest an amount of 1 billion dollars, converted 839 million euros, into the taxi company with online platform.

Bloomberg will not provide details of the negotiations and the site points to the possibility that the parties will not reach an agreement. If an investment of $1 billion follows, this amount could come from Google or Alphabet’s investment arm CapitalG, Bloomberg sources claim.

Alphabet and Lyft are no strangers to each other. Alphabet subsidiary Waymo is already working with Lyft on the development of autonomous driving. Other partners include Jaguar Land Rover, General Motors and software company nuTonomy. Lyft is aiming for the advent of a ‘hybrid network’, to use both human drivers and autonomous vehicles to transport passengers.

At the same time, Waymo is at odds with Uber, the other major taxi service with an online platform. Waymo claims that Uber stole technology for autonomous vehicles through a former employee. Uber denies this.