SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 — Uber is fundraising again.

The mobile car-hailing application is in early talks to raise a new round of financing that could value the startup at US$50 billion (RM180 billion), according to a person familiar with the discussions, who spoke anonymously because the process is confidential. Uber could raise more than US$1.5 billion, given the amount of interest from investors in the company, the person said.

The new capital will not be used primarily for expansion purposes, unlike Uber’s previous financing rounds. Instead, the funding is strategic, with an eye on partnerships, the person said.

Uber declined to comment. The fundraising was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Uber, based in San Francisco, has raised money relentlessly in recent years at rapidly swelling valuations. So far, the company has raised more than US$4 billion as it moves into new markets globally, disrupting established taxi and other transportation industries by letting people request rides through their smartphones. The company was founded in 2009 and is led by Travis Kalanick, who is chief executive.

In December, Uber closed a US$1.2 billion round of financing that valued it at US$40 billion. The company then moved to accommodate additional investors like Baidu, the Chinese Internet giant. That round followed one in June, when the service said that it had raised US$1.2 billion at a valuation of US$17 billion.

At a US$50 billion valuation, Uber would be the world’s most valuable private startup, topping the Chinese electronics maker Xiaomi, which was last valued at US$45 billion. It would also be worth more than publicly traded companies like FedEx, with a market value of US$48 billion, and Nissan Motor, with a capitalization of US$47 billion.

The divide between Uber and other “unicorns” — Silicon Valley’s term for billion-dollar startups — would also grow. Even at its current US$40 billion valuation, it was nearly triple that of other elite Silicon Valley startups like data-analysis firm Palantir, according to the research firm CB Insights. Among Silicon Valley startups, only Facebook had attained a US$50 billion valuation as a private company.

Uber’s new fundraising discussions come as many Silicon Valley startups have been on a fundraising tear. This week alone, lending startup Affirm said it had raised US$275 million in debt and equity at an undisclosed valuation, while Zenefits, a software-as-a-service startup, said it had raised US$500 million at a valuation of US$4 billion. The fundraising has also taken place against a more compressed time period, with Zenefits boosting its war chest in less than a year from a previous financing round.

The action is not only taking place in the United States. This week, drone-maker DJI, which is based in Shenzhen, China, said it had raised US$75 million from venture capital firm Accel Partners. — The New York Times