Intel-Jio Deal: US Semiconductor Giant Invests Rs 1,894.5 Crore in RIL Unit, 12th Deal in 11 Weeks

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Friday announced that Intel will invest Rs 1894.50 crore for 0.39 per cent stake in Jio Platforms. This will be a historic twelfth investment in the digital arm of RIL within eleven weeks.

With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 1,17,588.45 crore from leading technology investors including Facebook, Silver Lake Partners (two investments), Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, PIF and Intel.

This is the largest continuous funds raise by a company anywhere in the world. For some comparison, India's start-up ecosystem raised Rs 1.10 lakh crore last year, in what was its best year.

Jio, which runs movie, news and music apps as well as the telecom enterprise Jio Infocomm, has attracted the largest continuous fundraising by a company anywhere in the world.

The series of investments in Jio was led by a 9.99 percent stake sale to Facebook Inc for Rs 43,574 crore on April 22. Since then, General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR, Mubadala Investment Company and ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and Intel have lined up for investments in Jio.

Intel Capital is the investment arm of Intel Corporation, a leader in the semiconductor industry, shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of global innovations. Intel has operated in India for more than two decades and today employs thousands of employees there with state-of-the-art design facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, datacenter and cloud, 5G, next-generation compute and a wide range of other disruptive technologies. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$12.9 billion in more than 1,582 companies worldwide, and 692 portfolio companies have gone public or participated in a merger.

Intel Capital curates thousands of business development introductions each year between its portfolio companies and the Global 2000.