Unlike its tech competitors, Apple Inc. doesn’t have a venture-capital arm. The reason goes to the core of Apple itself — it’s all about secrecy.

At least that’s what experts say, after Apple AAPL, -3.17% made a $1 billion investment in Didi Chuxing, nearly double the total 2015 spending of the largest corporate venture arm, with no signs of forming a separate investment vehicle. And while Apple has several advantages which imply it never needs to form one, a venture-capital arm might benefit the company’s tax bill if Didi sells or goes public.

Several experts say that if Apple did have a venture-capital arm, the investments it made could give the public an indication of Apple’s future strategy and interests.

“It really relates to why Apple IP and licensing and overall market strategy is fundamentally different. It’s a company that is known for its secrecy,” said Christian Catalini, an assistant professor of technological innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Additionally, a venture-capital arm could break down Apple’s image of being the best and most innovative, which is something the company relies on to sell devices at premium prices, said Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners.

“There’s something about having a venture arm that says other people can teach us how to do something,” Wolff said.

Still, Apple, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this article, is somewhat of an outlier in its sector. And the company is sitting on $230 billion in cash, which includes cash equivalents and short- and long-term marketable securities, as of its March earnings, which could potentially be used for venture-capital investments.

The four largest corporate VC shops belong to tech companies, according to data firm CB Insights. In 2015, Intel Capital INTC, -0.85% was the most active corporate venture-capital group in terms of unique global investments, followed by Google Ventures GOOG, -2.37% , Qualcomm Ventures QCOM, -3.64% , Salesforce Ventures CRM, -0.71% and GE Ventures GE, -2.41% , according to CB Insights. Intel Capital invested $514 million in 2015, involving 143 investments.

That year had a record level of investment from corporate venture investors, bringing in $28.4 billion across 1,301 deals. There were also 85 corporate venture arms that made their first investment in 2015, according to CB Insights. The numbers did taper off in the fourth quarter of 2015 — the most recent quarter CB Insights has data for — as overall venture capital investments declined.

The reason companies have a venture arm is to get an idea of upcoming trends, and potentially later acquisitions, or to build an ecosystem around the company.

“We really use investments to look ahead in terms of where markets and technologies are,” said Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco Investments.

Apple doesn’t need to invest to keep an eye on trends, though. With its iTunes Store, Apple can already see what kind of apps or companies users are interested in and monitor trends. And because of Apple’s dominance in tech, it has access to some of the best and brightest companies, said Sharon Wienbar, venture partner at Scale Venture Partners.

“If you’re going to choose one platform to build for, you’re going to choose Apple,” Wienbar said.

A trending app can turn into an acquisition target for Apple or a chance for Apple to build its own version of the app, Wolff said, citing the rise of music streaming site Spotify and Apple’s later introduction of Apple Music.

And while Apple may not have a formal venture arm, it seems to have a team at the company monitoring the trends and choosing investments, Wolff said, as evidenced by the investment in Didi Chuxing as well as recent investments in mapping technology companies. Apple had 11 publicly disclosed acquisitions in 2015 and disclosed four private-market deals, including mergers and acquisitions and the Didi Chuxing investment, this year, according to CB Insights.

Other companies, such as Facebook Inc. FB, -0.89% , with its acquisition of companies such as WhatsApp, have also made investments without having a dedicated venture arm. Corporations directly invested $26.8 million into venture-capital backed startups in all of 2015, compared to corporate venture capital investments of $28.3 million.

But Apple does face one possible disadvantage with its investments. Most of Apple’s cash is overseas, which means Apple would face a large tax burden if it tries to bring it back to the U.S.

On one hand, Apple has already found a use for this capital with its investment in Didi. Paul Gillis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, said Apple will likely use profit from Chinese sales held in its corporate subsidiaries in China for the Didi investment. Investing the capital, instead of trying to bring it back to the U.S., avoids a 5% to 10% tax China charges for removing proceeds from the country as well as U.S. repatriation taxes

“Using it to buy an interest in Didi is a legitimate way to use those funds without any tax consequences because those funds remain in China and remain Chinese assets,” Gillis said. “That wouldn’t be evading taxes doing that. They’re just making a decision not to take the money back to the U.S. and doing something else.”

It essentially serves the same tax purpose as having a corporate venture-capital arm in China would, says Jason Kaplan, partner at Hogan Lovells.

But a potential tax advantage in having a formal foreign venture-capital arm would come when the foreign investee company goes public or is sold. At that point, gains that the venture-capital arm earns from the investment may qualify for deferral from subpart F income if it is seen as active business income, which means these profits would not be taxed in the U.S., Kaplan said.

Investments that pay off without a venture-capital arm could be seen as passive investments, which means they could be taxed in the U.S., he said.

Additionally, as Apple sits on its cash pile, its stock has taken a hit after it posted its first-ever decline in iPhone sales. Shares of Apple have fallen 5% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 3%. An investment vehicle could help bring needed innovation to the company and potentially bring the stock back up, Wolff said.

Still, these hits may not matter to Apple. With that much cash on hand, Apple has the option to acquire a company outright and eschew just taking a stake in a bunch of startups.

“They’re hoarding cash for something massively strategic,” Wienbar said.

— Jeremy C. Owens contributed to this article.

This article was first published on June 15, 2016.