It’s been just a day that Google committed a $10 Billion Digitization Fund to India. And a report says that the company could invest close to $4 Billion on telecom major Jio. The company is in talks with the digital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. And if reports are true, an announcement could come very soon. India’s number one telecom operator has attracted non-stop overseas investments since the past few weeks.
Bloomberg’s exclusive report has brought the private information from its sources who say that the investment will be made on Jio Platforms Ltd. The plan is to buy stakes worth $4 Billion in a bid to compete in the ever-growing internet segment.
Rivalling Facebook
This is a no brainer as companies like Intel Corp., and Qualcomm are already looking to invest in South East Asia where Millions of new users are added every month. However there is no official information from Google and Jio as of yet, but insider source for Bloomberg says that an announcement regarding the same could come in the next few weeks.
Reliance Jio, which already has 400 Million users is turning out to be a centre of attraction under the belt of indigenous company. A bunch of users use the service to purchase on e-commerce platforms, download media every day via cheap smartphones and the company’s reduce data tariffs.
This move will only help both Alphabet’s wholly-owned subsidiary and the Ambani-founded company to expand their venture into online retail, content streaming, digital payment, etc. As mentioned earlier, companies like Intel, Qualcomm and Facebook have already invested in Jio. Qualcomm had been the latest entrant holding as much as 0.15% of stocks worth $97 Million.
Some of the technology companies who have invested in Jio are as below :
| Buyers | Stake (%) | Amount | As on Date |
| Intel | 0.39 | $253 Million | July 3rd |
| Qualcomm | 0.15 | $97 Million | July 12th |
| 9.99 | $5.7 Billion | April 22nd. |
Google’s focus on India for the next five years.
The news comes in the wake of a recent big commitment from Google of a $10 Million Digitization fund to help accelerate the Indian economy. After entering into India in 2004, the company has launched several products and services like the Internet Saathi services (bring rural women online) and Google Pay.
From a barely developed nation status in the 1990s, India has grown into a technological hub with 500 Million Internet users as of today. This is second only to China. Hence it is understandable that Google wants to invest more in the emerging country. To that end, companies like Jio will spearhead the development in the coming years.
