Silicon Valley may sound like the land where your tech dreams come true but make a few enemies and you’ll regret ever coming there. And Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is about to haunt Uber.
According to various reports from Bloomberg and Axios, Alphabet is in talks to invest a whopping $1 billion in Uber’s arch rival Lyft, a US-based ride-hailing service. The investment could come from Google or CapitalG, Alphabet’s investment division.
While representatives from Alphabet and Lyft have denied a comment on the potential investment, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the rumors turn out to be true because the two companies already have a history. In May, they partnered with Lyft to work on autonomous driving together. And we all know of another company who is peddling in the self-driving cars division – Uber.
Alphabet’s partnership with Lyft and the recent investment rumors all but make it clear that it is trying its best to ice out Uber. But here is where things get interesting. Google was one of the early investors in Uber but is now embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with the company over stolen trade secrets. In February, Waymo, Google’s self-driving division, accused Uber of infringing on its patents, stealing its trade secrets and intellectual property material. Uber fired back by saying that Google is only trying to sideline its competition.
The lawsuit hasn’t been settled yet but it is clear that Alphabet is the latest company to join the anti-Uber empire by taking sweet revenge on the company. After months of scandals, while Uber finally settles in with a new CEO, its rival Lyft is all set to benefit from Alphabet’s interest in its self-driving cars division.
