US-based social media giant Facebook, founded and led by one of the world's richest men Mark Zuckerburg is looking to buy a multi-billion dollar stake in Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, reports Livemint.

Facebook is said to be close to signing a preliminary deal with Reliance Jio for purchase of a stake of as much as 10 per cent. It should be noted that analysts at Bernstein have valued Reliance jio upwards of $60 billion.

This development comes at a time when India is witnessing a massive surge in the number of internet users. In 2017, it had 450 million people who had access to the internet, and the same figure is expected to balloon to a massive size of 850 million by 2022.

Apart from Facebook, technology behemoth Google is also engaged in talks with Reliance for a stake to boost its presence in the booming Indian digital market.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio already has a partnership with Microsoft, the two plan to offer cloud computing solutions to businesses.