Maker of Marlboro invests $12.8 billion in Juul

Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, announced Thursday it had made a $12.8 billion investment in Juul Labs, the vapor company that critics accuse of helping to create a teen smoking epidemic.

The investment makes Altria a minority shareholder, with a 35 percent stake in Juul, the heavyweight of the vapor market.

Richmond, Va.-based Altria's investment has more than doubled Juul's valuation as of this summer. Juul is now worth $38 billion.

Critics see the partnership as a means of cementing a future of widespread smoking in America. Juul is claiming the opposite.

The San Francisco-based start-up has painted itself as the antidote to traditional tobacco products, and the company said in a news release that its partnership with Altria is a way to boost its core mission - helping adult smokers abandon cigarettes in favor of something purer and safer.

'We understand the controversy and skepticism that comes with an affiliation and partnership with the largest tobacco company in the U.S.,” Juul chief executive Kevin Burns said in the release.

'But over the course of the last several months we were convinced by actions, not words, that in fact this partnership could help accelerate our success switching adult smokers.”

But the product's explosive popularity among teens has drawn criticism from the public and regulatory agencies that, despite Juul's claims to the contrary, argue the company has targeted young smokers with sweet vapor flavors and marketing that glamorizes smoking.

On Tuesday, the U.S. surgeon general declared teen e-cigarette use an epidemic, pointing to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration that said tobacco use within 30 days had risen 75 percent among high-schoolers in the past year.

The terms of the deal allow Juul to stay fully independent, according to the release, while using Altria's infrastructure, such as sales and distribution services.

Juul also will have access to Altria's retail shelf space and be allowed to advertise on some of Altria's products.

Since Juul was introduced to the market in 2015, the USB-shaped smoking device that delivers concentrated nicotine has become ubiquitous.

In just three years, it has captured about 70 percent of the e-cigarette market, according to a Wells Fargo analysis of Nielsen sales data, and tobacco use has fallen to a historic low.