Google Said It Would Invest $10 Billion In India. Nearly Half Of It Is Going To The Country's Richest Man.

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On Monday, Google announced that it will invest $10 billion in India over the next few years. Two days later, the company revealed a key detail: Nearly half of the money will go to a top telecom operator owned by Asia’s richest man.

The internet giant will invest $4.5 billion into Jio Platforms as part of a plan to provide "increase access for the hundreds of millions in India who don't own a smartphone," Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted Wednesday. Mukesh Ambani, Jio's owner, has a net worth of more than $70 billion.

Google first unveiled the $10 billion Digitization Fund for India on Monday at an online event featuring key Google executives, including Pichai, and members of the Indian government. The company said that the money would go towards providing Indians with inexpensive internet access, digitizing the country’s small and medium businesses, and using artificial intelligence in areas like healthcare, agriculture, and education.

Over the last few years, India has become a key market for large American tech companies as they seek growth beyond the United States and Europe. More than 500 million Indians — just under half the country’s population — are now online, and nearly all of them use inexpensive smartphones that run Google’s Android operating system.

Most of that growth has been fueled by Jio. Ambani, an industrialist, founded Jio and pumped it with $35 billion to blanket the country with a high-speed 4G network, which brought the price of data down to pennies. The move launched a telecom pricing war in India and made Jio the country’s largest telecom carrier with over 388 million subscribers — more than the entire population of the United States. Jio plans to grow by rolling out internet-powered services such as e-commerce, streaming TV, music services, online gaming, and video conferencing apps.

As part of the Jio investment, Google and Jio will also work together to create an affordable, entry-level Android smartphone for more than 500 million Indians who still don't have access to the internet, both companies said.

Over the last three months, investors from around the world have poured in $20 billion into Jio Platforms. In April, Facebook announced that it would buy nearly 10% of the company for $5.7 billion. Facebook’s investment was followed by American private equity firms General Atlantic, Vista Equity Partners, and Silver Lake Partners, as well as chip giants Intel and Qualcomm.

i_know_i_am_crazy on July 16th, 2020 at 16:31 UTC »

I am not pro-Ambani, neither am i against him. The thing is, I used to ignore this guy before 2017. He was just a rich guy from India and owned quite a few of brands that i used in my daily life, just like tata and nestle. But then he launched Jio, and it completely changed the landscape in India. He offered a service, that was not only very cheap, but also helped toward improving the internet usage in India. Internet was a myth in rural India before 2017. My hometown had only one ISP and they used to charge quite a sum of money for few GBs of internet. In my mother's hometown, there was no such thing as internet. But now, we can video call them whenever we want. They now use internet for their benefit and it has affected the village in quite a positive way. I know he is hiking the price now days, but compared to pre Jio era, it is nothing. I don't know if he is a good person or not, but I am thankful for him for this, because now every ISP provider has to compete with Jio and competition is good for the consumeres.

hublaka on July 16th, 2020 at 14:46 UTC »

Ambani, an industrialist, founded Jio and pumped it with $35 billion to blanket the country with a high-speed 4G network, which brought the price of data down to pennies. 

The article makes it seems like the guy is taking the money. If you read it, the richest guy gave people in india a better infrastructure with his own money to help people who couldn't afford it a better life style.

Bizzle_worldwide on July 16th, 2020 at 14:15 UTC »

Keep in mind that India has significant barriers to entry for foreign companies and investments, and a proven track record by the Indian government to penalize foreign operators in order to protect local champions.

Most foreign companies who want to operate in India are now choosing the locally preferred and endorsed structure of taking a minority stake in a vehicle owned by an Indian business partner.

And it just so happens that the Indian business partners that are the best connected are already billionaires.

So at this point, you have a choice. You can give a ton of money to Indians richest men in order to do business in India, or you can not do business in India.