Google could be the thirteenth investor in Jio Platforms, according to a report by Bloomberg. The tech giant is reportedly looking to invest $4 billion in Jio Platforms and talks are in an advanced stage, the report said. The deal could be announced in a few weeks.
This comes just one day after Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet Inc (the parent company of Google), announced a $10 billion digitalisation fund for India.
If this deal goes through, Google joins the likes of Facebook in investing in Jio Platforms. So far, Reliance has sold 25.24% stake in Jio Platforms. Earlier in June, Business Insider reported that both Google and Microsoft were looking to invest in Reliance Jio and that Jio would have to pick one of the two.
Reports of the potential Google investment comes days after Qualcomm announced a Rs 730 crore investment into Jio Platforms for a 0.15% stake. The investment is set to help Jio rollout advanced 5G infrastructure and services in India.
With Qualcomm, the total investments into Jio Platforms has exceeded Rs 1.18 lakh crore in less than 3 months.
The first in line was Facebook, who picked up a 9.99% stake. Since then, KKR (2.32%), the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (2.32%), Vista Equity Partners (2.32%), Silver Lake Partners (2.08%), Mubadala Investment Company (1.85%), General Atlantic (1.34%), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (1.16%), TPG Capital (0.93%), L Catterton (0.39%), Intel Capital (0.39%) and Qualcomm (0.15%) now have a stake in the company.
On July 11, Reliance Industries said that Jio Platforms received subscription amounts of Rs 30,062.43 crore from four investors for 6.13% stake in total.
Among the four investors, L Catterton has invested Rs 1,894.50 cr, the Public Investment Fund has put in Rs 11,367 cr, Silver Lake has invested Rs 10,202.55 cr and General Atlantic Singapore has put in Rs 6,598.38 cr.
"We hereby inform that, after receipt of all requisite approvals, Jio Platforms Limited, a subsidiary of the Company, received the subscription amounts from the following investors and allotted equity shares to them," RIL said in a regulatory filing.