Reliance Jio has been pulling rabbits out of its hat this whole year -- especially at a time when businesses are barely managing to keep up -- by getting investments from leading tech giants like Facebook, Intel as well as several US and UAE based companies.?
And now the next company looking to invest in Jio Platforms is reportedly Google.
This is according to a recent report by Bloomberg. The report states (citing sources) that Google is currently in talks, looking to invest a whopping $4 billion in Jio Platforms. Although the report also states the fact that the final numbers could change as the companies are amidst discussions and negotiations.
This comes a day after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, at its Google for India online conference revealed to the world that it will be investing Rs 75,000 crores (which is around $10 billion) in India over the next five to seven years.?
He explained how this investment will be used in four specific areas -- enable affordable access to information to every Indian regional language, build products and services that India needs right now, help businesses go digital and lastly leveraging technology and AI for social good in health, agriculture and education.
Coming to Jio Platforms, 12 investors have claimed a stake in the telecom-software company with the most recent one being smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm for Rs 730 crores or around $97 million, raising a total of Rs 1,18,318.45 crores by selling 25.24 percent stake as of now.
Jio currently sits at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore, along with an enterprise value of a whopping Rs 5.16 lakh crores.?
Before Qualcomm, companies including Facebook, TPG, KKR, L Catterton, Intel Capital, General Atlantic, Vista Equity Partners, two sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi -- Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala ¨C and one from Saudi Arabia ¨C Public Investment Fund have made considerable investments in Jio Platforms.