Google's parent company Alphabet is planning to invest a massive amount in Lyft, the ride hailing service provider. According to Bloomberg, the funding, which hasn't been finalized yet, could reach as much as $1 billion.
This funding by Google, if materializes, will prove to be a serious blow on the face of Uber, which is also struggling to secure more funding, currently. The news came from a report by The Information, which stated that Lyft is getting ready to start a business in Canada, which would be the California-based company's first international expansion.
This whole scenario also shows just how much the relationship between Google and Uber has worsened during the last couple of months. Previously, Google had invested a whopping $258 million in Uber via Google Ventures and now the company is suing Uber for, allegedly, stealing trade secrets from Google's self-driving car company, Waymo.
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Presently, some other small gestures are also hinting towards a potential partnership between Google and Lyft. For example, Google has sent out press invites, for the launch of Pixel 2 smartphone, asking the attendees if they'd like to receive a promotional code for a Lyft ride to the event. Google's previous events also included such offers but the only difference was that, both in 2015 and 2016, the company offered up Uber codes for the hardware launch events.
However, it is still a bit of a stretch to speculate that the company would invest a billion dollars in Lyft, of course. But, at the very least, it shows that the tech giant is getting a lot closer to Lyft.
