Google to invest 33,737 cr in JIO platforms at 7.73% stake

Reliance Industries Limited, Jio Platforms Limited, and Google LLC on Wednesday announced the signing of binding agreements for an investment of Rupees 33,737 crore by Google into Jio Platforms.

This investment by Google values Jio Platforms at an equity value of rupees 4.36 lakh crore. Google's investment will translate into a 7.73% equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. With this, the total investment from financial and strategic investors into Jio Platforms stands at Rupees 1,52,056 crore, stated RIL.

In this connection, during its first ever virtual annual general meeting, Mukesh Ambani said, "We welcome Google onboard and are excited about our partnership for what it can deliver to Indians, from universalising Internet usage to deepening the new digital economy and providing a prime mover to India's economic growth. Together, we hope to play a strong facilitative role in the transformative journey of building a new, Digital India".

The investment will build on Jio's and Google's existing efforts to expand the benefits of digitization across the length and breadth of India, beyond the current 500+ million Internet users in the country. Jio Platforms and Google have also entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop an entry level affordable smartphone with optimizations to the Android operating system and the Play Store.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said, "Reliance Industries, and Jio Platforms, in particular, deserve a good deal of credit for India's digital transformation. 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".