Tech companies are becoming car companies and vice versa. What does that tell investors? The industry is setting up for some serious consolidation and M&A.
As Apple has struggled to come up with a new tech gadget the world ‘must have’ for five years and counting, it has been quietly working on some rather cloaked strategies to get involved in the automobile and transportation industries. Macworld reported that the tech giant was rumored to have budgeted $10 billion to create what has been dubbed the iCar - intended to rival Tesla. Apparently Apple has been keeping this project so quiet and under wraps that the Wall Street Journal reported it is internally only referred to by the code name ‘Titan’. Just tonight it was reported by Bloomberg that Apple is now Didi’s largest investor… Didi is China’s version of Uber, and its investors already include the who’s who of Chinese business, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Apple has invested $1 billion into Didi, the ride sharing powerhouse that operates in 400 Chinese cities and provides 11 million rides daily. Didi has single-handedly kept Uber at bay in China; and with Apple’s investment, it could lock up even more market share in the world’s second largest economy very quickly. Plus, being a homegrown grown startup, we all know the Chinese government will play favorite to it over Uber. We’ve seen that in the past with Baidu and Google, among many other East vs. West scenarios in China.
Every major tech company is looking to disrupt the automobile industry. Whether it be creating their own vehicles, developing sensors for autonomous cars or working on energy-efficient innovations, tech is taking over your ride.
Stay hungry,
Aaron
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