Alphabet Inc. has held conversations with Lyft Inc. about a potential investment in recent weeks, signalling strong support for Uber Technologies Inc.’s main U.S. competitor, according to people familiar with the matter.
An investment of about $1 billion in Lyft may come from Google or CapitalG, Alphabet’s private-equity arm, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
This makes perfect sense for both companies. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car division, signed a deal with Lyft to test that technology. The strange part is that Alphabet is also an investor in Uber, but Waymo is suing them for allegedly stealing their self-driving car technology.