Uber lost almost $6 billion in the first quarter as shares of Asian ride-hailing giants Didi and Grab tanked

• Uber posted $6 billion in losses in the first quarter due to its investments in Didi and Grab.
• Shares of the two Asian ride-hailing giants have plunged since they were listed in the US last year.

Uber posted a net loss of $5.9 billion in the first quarter, much of which came from its stakes in two Asian ride-hailing giants — Didi and Grab.

The share prices of both Asian companies have plunged since they were listed in the US last year.

This was in contrast to Uber's performance in the first quarter which saw bookings soaring 35% to $26.4 billion. Meanwhile, Uber's trips in the quarter grew 18% on-year to an average of about 19 million trips per day, the ride-hailing giant said in a Wednesday announcement. Quarterly revenue grew 136% on-year to $6.9 billion.

"Our results demonstrate just how much progress we've made navigating out of the pandemic and how the power of our platform is differentiating our business performance," said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in the company's earnings announcement.

Weighing on the results were $5.6 billion in losses from the value of China's Didi, Singapore's Grab and US self-driving vehicle start-up Aurora.

Didi's share price on the New York Stock Exchange is down about 61.5% year-to-date on the back of Beijing's crackdown on the country's big tech companies. The China-based ride-hailing giant is moving to delist its stock in the US.

Grab's stock price is down 56% this year so far as shares are under pressure from a worse-than-expected revenue fall in the first quarter of this year, Reuters reported in March.

Overall, the tech-focused Nasdaq composite is down 20% year-to-date in a broad market selloff due to factors including the lingering pandemic, surging inflation, and the Ukraine war.

Uber's share price closed 4.7% lower at $28.10 on Wednesday.