India’s Ambani taps Google in ambitious 5G phone-making deal
Google has become the latest US technology giant to invest in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries’ digital business.
The Alphabet-owned search engine has agreed to pay $4.5billion (Sh460b) for a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms.
Reliance’s billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani who is world’s ninth-richest person with a net worth of $68.7bn, according to Forbes, says the two companies will develop phones for 4G and 5G networks.
Google joins a list of new investors in Jio that includes Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm.
“Google has empowered millions of Indians to access helpful information and, like Jio, is a force for change and innovation,” Ambani said in a statement to shareholders.
Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said: “The pace and scale of digital transformation in India is hugely inspiring for us and reinforces our view that building products for India first helps us build better products for users everywhere.”
Facebook invests
Earlier this week Google also said the company would invest about $10 billion (Sh1.1 trillion) in India over the next five to seven years.
In April Facebook said it would invest $5.7billion (Sh613b) for a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio, making it the cut-price Indian mobile internet provider’s largest minority shareholder.
The investment arms of US technology giants Intel and Qualcomm have also bought smaller smaller stakes in the company.
Ambani has been on a shopping spree, managing to hook 11 big investors in the last three months and raising over $20 billion (Sh2.15 trillion).
Not only has it helped him remove his net debt of $21bn, he is now looking to expand in the e-commerce space to rival giants like Amazon in India.
His online venture Jio Mart wants to tap into Facebook-owned Whatsapp’s 400 million users in India to connect customers with their nearest mom and pop stores—hugely popular in India.
This is why the $6 billion (Sh645 billion) Facebook investment in April becomes even more significant.
Ambani also said his company had developed a fully home-grown 5G network towards a self-reliant India, and more importantly, counter China’s Huawei, which was looking to participate in India’s 5G trials. —BBC
