Alphabet CEO Larry Page's company is reportedly interested in taking a big stake in Lyft. Andrew Kelly/Reuters Google's parent company, Alphabet, is in talks to invest about $1 billion in Lyft, according to published reports.

The talks are being driven by top officials at Alphabet, according to the news website Axios. The potential investment could come either from Google or from CapitalG, Alphabet's investment division, Bloomberg reported.

Representatives of both Alphabet and Lyft representative declined to comment on the potential investment.

The two companies have already forged strong ties. In May, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, Waymo, signed a deal with Lyft to collaborate on autonomous-vehicle technology.

In July, Lyft announced it was forming an autonomous-car division that would be based at a new center in Palo Alto, California. The app-based taxi company said Waymo would be among its partners that would have representatives working in the space.

Lyft announced last year it would be expanding its work in self-driving cars and was aiming to have autonomous vehicles account for the majority of Lyft rides within five years. An investment from Google could help the company achieve that goal and give it a leg up on its archrival Uber.

Google was an early investor in Uber, but the companies are now engaged in a hard-fought lawsuit over trade secrets.