India’s Reliance to pump $110bn into AI infrastructure

• India is becoming a hotbed of AI activity and investments
• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and its digital subsidiary Jio Platforms will invest $110bn into sovereign infrastructure over seven years
• ‘This is not speculative investment’, says Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani
• RIL isn’t alone – another large Indian company, Adani, plans to pump $100bn into AI datacentres

Always keen to be at the forefront of cutting edge developments, Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has put itself at the forefront of India’s rapidly emerging AI infrastructure sector with a pledge to invest 10 trillion rupees ($110bn) during the next seven years into infrastructure that can support AI workloads. 

RIL has also transformed India’s communications networking and services sector with the launch of Jio Platforms, its digital subsidiary that counts the country’s mobile market leader, Reliance Jio, as the jewel in its crown: In just 10 years Reliance Jio grew from a 4G services startup to be the country’s dominant force in 4G, 5G and fixed broadband. 

But Jio Platforms is more than just the holding company for a giant mobile operator: It is also a technology developer that has been working on AI platforms and next-generation networking technology for years – see Jio Platforms unveils its ‘JioBrain’ AI platform.

And last September, RIL signalled its intentions for the AI era with the formation of a new subsidiary, Reliance Intelligence – see India’s Reliance forms new AI subsidiary.

Now RIL has taken that strategy a step further with the unveiling of a new plan and a new name to share with the world - Jio Intelligence. 

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani used the stage at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi to note how Jio had played a leading role in the transformation of India’s telecom sector and then make the following statement: 

“Jio will play an even bigger role in India's AI transformation. On behalf of the Reliance Group and Jio Intelligence, I want to make three announcements. Announcement one: Jio connected India to the internet era. Jio will now connect India to the intelligence era. We will deliver intelligence to every citizen, every sector of the economy and every facet of social development in every service of government. Jio will do so with the same reliability, quality, scale and extreme affordability that transformed connectivity. India cannot afford to rent intelligence. Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of [mobile] data.”

He continued:  “Announcement two. Jio, together with Reliance, will invest 10 lakh crores [$110bn] over the next seven years, starting this year. This is not speculative investment. It is not purchasing valuation. This is patient, disciplined nation-building capital designed to create durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades to come.

“The biggest constraint in AI today is not talent or imagination – it is the scarcity and high cost of compute. Therefore, here is my third announcement. Jio Intelligence will build India's sovereign compute infrastructure through three bold initiatives:" 

1. Gigawatt scale datacentres: "We already started construction on multi gigawatt AI-ready datacentres at Jamnagar. Over 120 megawatts will come online in the second half of 2026 [with] a clear path to gigawatt scale compute for training and large scale inference." 
2. Our green energy advantage: "We have an inhouse energy advantage with up to 10 gigawatts of ready green power surplus anchored by solar in both Kach [in Gujarat] and Andhra Pradesh."
3. A nationwide edge compute: "An edge compute layer, deeply integrated with Jio’s network, will make intelligence responsive, low-latency and affordable, close to where Indians live, learn and work, from Kirana [convenience] stores to clinics, from classrooms to farms, intelligence will live at the edge." 

Ambani concluded: “Our resolve is clear – make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity.”

Adani also unveils massive AI investment pledge

And RIL isn’t the only giant Indian company aiming to be at the heart of the country’s AI infrastructure revolution. 

The Adani Group, a giant conglomerate with significant power in the transport logistics and energy sectors, and which is already a major player in India’s datacentre sector through its AdaniConnex subsidiary,  announced what it described as “one of the world’s largest integrated energy-compute commitments, a direct investment of $100bn to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready datacentres by 2035. The initiative will establish a long-term sovereign energy and compute platform designed to position India as a global leader in the emerging Intelligence Revolution,” the company noted in this extensive announcement.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani stated: "The world is entering an Intelligence Revolution more profound than any previous Industrial Revolution. Nations that master the symmetry between energy and compute will shape the next decade. India is uniquely positioned to lead. At Adani, we are building on our foundation in datacentres and green energy to expand into the complete five-layer AI stack focused on India's technological sovereignty. India will not be a mere consumer in the AI age. We will be the creators, the builders and the exporters of intelligence and we are proud to be able to participate in that future."

And according to Adani’s estimates, its investment will “catalyse by 2035 an additional $150bn across server manufacturing, advanced electrical infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms and supporting industries. Together, this is projected to create a $250bn AI infrastructure ecosystem in India over the decade.”

Add that to RIL’s plans and the datacentre investments also being made in India by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others, and India looks set to become one of the world’s AI infrastructure and tech powerhouses. 

As an aside, it’s interesting to note that Adani tried, but failed, to play a role in India’s 5G sector: It acquired licences in 2022 with a view to developing networks and services for the enterprise sector, but ultimately abandoned its plans and its spectrum was transferred to Bharti Airtel. The Adani team will not want to suffer the same fate in the AI infrastructure sector. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV