Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), the parent company of Google, has reportedly held talks to invest about $1 billion in the ride-sharing company, Bloomberg reported. Google was an early investor in Lyft's rival, Uber.
The investment may come from Google or CapitalG, Alphabet's private-equity arm.
Axios separately reported that top-level company executives like Alphabet CEO Larry Page are driving the negotiation which started about a month ago.
In May, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit Waymo and Lyft announced a partnership to work together on developing self-driving technology; neither offered many details of the agreement.
Recently, Lyft has been in an expansion mode, saying in August that it was available in 40 U.S. states covering 94% of the country’s population.
Lyft raised $600 million in fresh funding in April, mostly from large global investment funds. The round valued the company at $7.5 billion, up from $5.5 billion at Lyft’s previous financing more than a year earlier.
Alphabet invested $258 million in Uber through its GV venture capital arm in 2013.
However, tension has grown between the companies as Alphabet unit Waymo is suing Uber over self-driving car technology.