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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
Technology
Asharq Al-Awsat

Google Buys 7.7% of Reliance's Digital Unit Jio

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a poster of Reliance Industries installed outside the venue of the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai June 7, 2012. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/File Photo

India's Reliance Industries on Wednesday said Alphabet Inc's Google will buy a 7.7% stake in its digital unit for $4.5 billion, winning the backing of another US tech giant after Facebook Inc in late April.

With Google's investment, strategic and financial investors have committed a total of 1.52 trillion rupees ($20.22 billion) in the last few months, Reliance chairman and billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual shareholders meeting hosted via a webcast.

Reliance's digital unit Jio Platforms houses music and movie apps but its mainstay is telecoms firm Jio Infocomm - India's largest mobile carrier with more than 387 million users.

Major players including Facebook, Intel and others have already ploughed some $15 billion into Jio Platforms this year, as Ambani -- India's richest man -- seeks to take on US giants Amazon and Walmart in India's growing online retail sector.

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