Walmart has spent $3.5 billion this year to settle debts with some PhonePe stockholders and buy shares from some Flipkart stakeholders.
Walmart reported in an SEC statement on Friday for the first time that the $3.5 billion in expenditures occurred in the first half of 2023. Currently, nearly 80% of Flipkart is owned by Walmart.
Walmart is increasing its investment in Indian e-commerce and payment platforms at a time when many other corporations, including Amazon, have cut back on their spending. Walmart also controls the majority of PhonePe and has spent over $20 billion on the two businesses.
In the last ten years, Amazon has spent over $11 billion on its e-commerce business and AWS in India. By 2030, it aims to invest an additional $15 billion. Amazon has set aside $12.7 billion of this $15 billion for its cloud division.
India has become a crucial battleground for multinational corporations as they compete to attract the next billion consumers.
General Atlantic, Tiger Global, and Walmart are just a few of the investors who have made new investments in PhonePe, which split from Flipkart, totalling $850 million in recent quarters.
