Apple invests in Chinese ride-sharing company

Apple has invested US$1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service DiDi Chuxing, a move that Apple chief executive Tim Cook said would help the company better understand the critical Chinese market. According to Reuters, the move aligns Apple with Uber Technologies’ chief rival in China, as automakers and technology companies forge new alliances and make cross investments. General Motors, for example, recently bought autonomous driving technology company Cruise Automation and has also taken a stake in US ri
May 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
493 Apple has invested US$1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service DiDi Chuxing, a move that Apple chief executive Tim Cook said would help the company better understand the critical Chinese market.

According to Reuters, the move aligns Apple with 8336 Uber Technologies’ chief rival in China, as automakers and technology companies forge new alliances and make cross investments. 948 General Motors, for example, recently bought autonomous driving technology company Cruise Automation and has also taken a stake in US ride-sharing company Lyft.

“We are making the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market,” Cook said in an interview with Reuters. “Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well.”

The investment makes Apple a strategic investor in DiDi and gives it a stake in two growing technologies, the sharing economy and car technology.

Related Content

  • December 7, 2020
    Saving the world, one parking space at a time
    Donald Shoup, professor of urban planning at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), tells Adam Hill about why parking is too cheap – and how Monopoly could seriously raise its game
    Read More
  • November 30, 2020
    CoMotion LA Live 2020: report
    November’s CoMotion LA Live event looked at new technology, emerging partnerships – and how Joe Biden’s ‘super-commuter’ status might just stand future mobility in good stead
    Read More
  • June 15, 2018
    Toyota puts $1bn into ride-hailing service Grab
    Toyota Motor Corporation is investing $1 billion in Grab Holdings, the Singapore-based ride-hailing platform provider. Grab, which has merged with Uber in south-east Asia, offers services which use a variety of transport modes, from bicycles and shuttle buses to cars and taxis. The companies say Toyota’s investment means they will also “strengthen and expand their existing collaboration in the area of connected cars, to drive the adoption of new mobility solutions across south-east Asia”.
    Read More
  • June 17, 2016
    Sampo Hietanen’s mobility mission
    For a decade Sampo Hietanen harboured a vision of an alternative form of mobility, now as CEO of MaaS Finland he is putting theory into practice. Sampo Hietanen has become the embodiment of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a concept he created 10 years ago while working for Finnish civil engineering giant Destia. “I had been working with the mobile sector on traffic information and started thinking what will happen when this becomes bigger,” he says.
    Read More

Highlighted Content