Mukesh Ambani is the richest person in Asia. Himanshu Bhatt / NurPhoto via Getty Images
As India turns its back on Chinese tech companies amid geopolitical tensions, American tech giants are increasing their bets on India, vying to fill a massive market gap in the world’s second most populous country.
On Wednesday, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of $ 71 billion, announced a $ 4.5 billion deal between Google’s parent company Alphabet and Jio Platforms, a telecommunications company. Owned by its commercial conglomerate Reliance Industries, to develop affordable smartphones. to get hundreds of millions of Indians who can’t afford the expensive phones online.
SEE ALSO: Why the UK hung up on Huawei 5G and what happens next?
“Google has empowered millions of Indians to access useful information and, like Jio, it is a force for change and innovation,” Ambani said at a Reliance shareholders meeting on Wednesday. “We welcome Google on board and are excited about our partnership for what it can offer Indians.”
Under the deal, Google will assume a 7.7 percent stake in Jio, India’s largest mobile network operator with 388 million users.
Google is the latest American tech giant to join Jio’s powerful list of international investors. This year, so far, the Indian company has raised billions of dollars from US tech companies and private equity firms, including Facebook, Qualcomm, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, KKR, and General Atlantic LLC. Jio is also backed by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment.
The agreement with Jio is Google’s first investment as part of its new $ 10 billion initiative to finance technology companies and digital infrastructure in India, one of the last untapped markets in the world where half of its 1.3 billion people They have not yet connected.
“This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, originally from India, said at an event that unveiled the fund on Monday. He said Google’s investments would focus on four areas: affordable access in Indian languages, new products and services targeting Indians, helping companies connect and using technology to promote social problems.
“Our joint collaboration will focus on increasing access for hundreds of millions of Indians who do not currently own a smartphone while improving the mobile experience for all,” Pichai said of the Jio deal in a statement on Wednesday.
Last March, Pichai attended the wedding of Ambani’s son, Akash Ambani, in Mumbai.
