Google in talks to invest $4 billion in Jio Platforms

Bloomberg

Google is in advanced talks to buy a $4 billion stake in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s technology venture, seeking to join rival Facebook Inc.
in the chase for growth in a promising internet market.
The Mountain View, California-based titan has been discussing the investment in Reliance Industries Ltd.’s digital arm, Jio Platforms Ltd., the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. An announcement could come as soon as the next few weeks.
Jio is at the center of Indian tycoon’s ambition to transform his energy conglomerate into a homegrown technology behemoth — something on the lines of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The venture has turned into a magnet for Silicon Valley investors, attracting almost $16 billion from Facebook to KKR & Co. in the past three months.
Should the talks with Google result in a deal, that would further burnish Jio’s credentials in its push to upend online retail, content streaming, digital payments, education and health care in a market of more than a billion people.

Global technology leaders from Facebook to Intel Corp. are looking for multiple ways to grab a slice of the action in the South Asian country, where millions of first-time internet users are added every month. Jio Platforms, which boasts almost 400 million users through its wireless network, offers the largest base of such users who are increasingly buying merchandise online and downloading music and video, using cheap smartphones and Jio’s own cut-price data services.
Details of the potential deal with Google could change, and negotiations could still be delayed or fall apart, the people said. Representatives for Google and Reliance didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The string of investments in Jio has spurred a rally in the shares of parent Reliance. The stock has more than doubled from their March 23 low, rewarding investors who will get to hear Ambani, 63, lay out the road map for the future of the group at the annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday.
The surge in the shares has also helped Ambani, Asia’s richest man, to break into the exclusive club of the world’s 10 richest people. With a net worth of $72.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has rocketed past Elon Musk, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and legendary investor Warren Buffett in the past few days to the sixth on the list.