Alphabet Inc’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is buying a 7.7% stake in India’s Reliance Industries for $4.5 billion U.S.
With Google’s investment, strategic and financial investors, including Facebook Inc., have now committed a total of $20.22 billion U.S. to Reliance Industries in the past few months. Google is specifically investing in the Jio digital platform that houses music and movie apps. But its mainstay is telecoms firm Jio Infocomm - India’s largest mobile carrier with more than 387 million users.
The Reliance-Google announcement comes days after Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said his company would invest $10 billion U.S. in India over the next five years through equity deals and tie-ups.
The deal with Google will bolster Reliance’s ambitions to build smart homes, connected cars and security systems. The investment arms of chipmakers Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) have also bought stakes in Jio Platforms as India prepares to auction 5G airwaves to telecom service providers.
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