Editor's note: Federica Russo is a researcher and simulation supervisor at the Washington-based geo-strategic consulting firm Wikistrat, and an affiliated researcher at the Brussels-based European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS). The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Over recent days, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai confirmed that the search giant will invest 10 billion U.S. dollars in India in the framework of a plan defined by equity investments, partnerships, and infrastructures.

During the next 5 to 7 years, Google intends to enable affordable access to information and digital solutions in Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi and other languages spoken in the country; tailoring products and services according to the specific requests and needs of the Indian market; supporting the digital revolution of businesses; and implementing the use of emerging technologies in critical areas of the society such as education, agriculture, and health.

In particular, Google started talks to invest 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in Reliance Jio Platforms with the aim of  taking a 7.7 percent stake in the company. This operation allows the multinational tech company to join Facebook, Qualcomm, Intel and other entities in the circle of strategic partners of one of the major telecom operators in India. 

In late April, Facebook announced an investment of 5.7 billion U.S. dollars in this subsidiary of the Reliance Industries, while Qualcomm and Intel respectively want to invest 97 million U.S. dollars to acquire a 0.15 percent equity stake and 253.5 million U.S. dollars to acquire a 0.39 percent stake.

Reliance Jio Platforms, the four-year-old digital arm of the conglomerate Reliance, was founded by Mukesh Ambani with the goal of providing affordable and high-quality telecommunications services in the country, in line with the Digital India vision through the improvement and implementation of broadband connectivity, smart devices, artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data analytics. 

With its 400 million subscribers, the ambitious company has attracted the attention of a number of important foreign investors. Excluding the already mentioned Facebook, Google, Qualcomm and Intel, among them there are even the U.S. private equity and investments firms General Atlantic, LCatterton, Texas Pacific Group, Silver Lake, and KKR but also the Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF), the UAE's investment company Mabadala as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

American companies have always been interested in the great potential of the Indian market, which has a vivid innovation culture thanks to an unrivaled youth population and urbanization trends that saw young and talented people migrating to cities and forming a middle-class interested in digital innovation. However, it could be important to take also into account the wider framework within which the rivalry between China and the U.S. could meet the tension raising between India and China.

More specifically, the latest moves put in place by the U.S. tech giants are coming during a period characterized by a critical juncture in the Sino-Indian relationship, in virtue of the border tensions between the two countries, and the consequent ban of 59 Chinese apps imposed by the Indian Information Technology Ministry – among which the famous TikTok, Tencent's WeChat and Alibaba's UC Browser.

At the moment, the need of the U.S. to push back against the Chinese tech influence on multiple front lines, and the will of India to defend its role and interests in the region could converge and lead to increase U.S. investments in India to support the country's transformation in a digital hub, and to gain advantage in the competition with China. 

Reliance Jio, for example, is particularly appreciated in the U.S. – as showed even by comments posted by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Twitter – because the company opted for not using Chinese equipment. Jio Platforms, in addition, developed 5G solutions which could be launched in India in a year, and exported globally in the future after having proven them in the domestic market potentially replacing Huawei in several countries.

Even considering New Delhi's pride spirit, which imposes the country to not appear driven by foreign actors in any moves, it could easily become an important dowel in the context of the U.S.-China rivalry which should not be underestimated for the pressure that could eventually exercise on the Asian counterpart.

India has also been fundamental to absorb Chinese excess finance and technology capacity. In fact, in spite of their geopolitical diatribes, China's venture capitalists heavily invested in Indian start-ups in 2019 – a situation not really welcomed by those national observers arguing that the great Chinese influence in such strategic area was not positive. 

In addition, Indian digital payments have already become a competition area between China and the U.S., when in 2019, Chinese and American investors such as Alibaba's Paytm, Amazon, Google, and PhonePe owned by Walmart took an active role by injecting billions in this Indian growing sector.

Thus, betting big on India now could indeed be interpreted as a move with a political meaning, which sees Washington leveraging New Delhi tensions' with Beijing to expand the presence of U.S. companies in such an important market, and consequently the American influence.

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