China’s biggest search engine Baidu is reportedly ready to take a stake in car-sharing company Uber.
The investment value could be as much as $600 million, China National Radio reported.
Neither company has confirmed the tie-up but Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said his company would announce "an investment in and strategic cooperation deal with a prominent US-based startup" on December 17.
He declined to name the company in question.
Since launching in 2009, Uber has raised $2.5 billion in several rounds of funding, and earlier this month the company was valued at $40 billion.
China’s biggest taxi hailing apps are Kuadi Dache and Didi Dache which are backed by Baidu rivals Alibaba and Tencent Holdings.
A strategic partnership with Baidu will give Uber access to Baidu’s vast customer data and would likely help it negotiate regulatory hurdles in China’s major cities.
