There is more tech firepower coming onboard Reliance Jio Platforms’ captable. Days after Intel’s $253 million investment into Reliance-owned telecom to digital giant, its Qualcomm that is announcing a $100M investment into Jio today.
What is interesting though, is Qualcomm’s investment in a company wherein its fiercest global chip-making rival Intel, is a party as well. Guess this just goes on to show the kind of digital behemoth Reliance-owner Mukesh Ambani has been able to build. VC firms, tech companies, PE firms are all lining up millions to literally just get the slightest piece of Jio Platforms.
As for this particular Qualcomm round, the financials remain the same. Qualcomm, through its VC arm Qualcomm Ventures, will get 0.15% equity stake in Jio Platforms
on a fully diluted basis. This will value Jio Platforms at its ongoing enterprise valuation of round about $65 Billion.
Similar to the Intel deal, Qualcomm is interested to get a piece of Jio’s planned roll out of 5G infrastructure at a scale, perhaps never seen before in telecom history. Intel too had similar intentions with its $250M investment. “As a world leader in wireless technologies, Qualcomm offers deep technology know how and insights that will help us deliver on our 5G vision and the digital transformation of India for both people and enterprises.”, said Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Jio Platforms parent Reliance Industries limited.
Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, said, “With our shared goal of extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone and everything, we anticipate Jio Platforms will deliver a new set of services and experiences to Indian consumers. With unmatched speeds and emerging use cases, 5G is expected to transform every industry in the coming years.”
Including the rather token Qualcomm investment that has come into Jio Platforms, the Reliance-owned telecom-to-digital giant has now raised a colossal $15.6Bn in external capital. All of this money, coming in right during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and in a record time of just around 60 days.
So far, companies like General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR, sovereign funds Mubadala and ADIA, TPG and L Catterton have taken part in Jio’s funding rounds. Most notably, Facebook bought a 9.99% stake in the company for $5.7 Billion on April 22, becoming the largest minority stakeholder in Mukesh Ambani’s dream project.
