From The Rusting Apple Files...

Apple's Most Valuable Crown At Risk.

Apple is still the world’s most valuable company — by the skin of its teeth.

But Wall Street has been engaged for months now in a battle for supremacy that could see the iPhone one of the tech industry’s periodic changes of leadership.
maker lose the position it has held for the past four years in

 Investors have been struggling since early this year with whether the rivalry between the world’s biggest consumer products company and its largest internet concern should yield a clear winner.

Apple is taking some big risk in order to maintain it's position on the slippery slope of fame and fortune.

Apple Inc. invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-sharing service Didi, making one of its biggest bets on software and services and dealing a blow to Uber Technologies Inc.'s ambitions in the country.

 The iPhone maker will help Uber's largest rival build up a ride-sharing platform that handles more than 11 million rides a day and serves about 300 million users across China, Didi said in a statement on Friday. 

Executive Officer Tim Cook has highlighted higher-margin services as a growth area and suggested he would use some of its $200 billion-plus cash hoard for investments.

 The investment in one of China's largest online companies will allow Apple to forge alliances in its single largest market outside of the United States.

 Didi, incorporated as Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., is in the process of raising more than $2 billion at a valuation of about $25 billion, people familiar with the matter have said.

 It operates in 400 Chinese cities and works with more than 14 million Chinese car owners.
 
 The company is Uber's most potent rival and has formed an international coalition with Lyft Inc. in the U.S., India's Ola and Southeast Asia's Grab to fight the globally expanding San Francisco firm.

Apple is hoping to reinvigorate lackluster iPhone sales in China with its $1 billion investment in Didi.

The last big investment the company made was when it acquired Beats for $3 billion in 2014.