Mukesh Ambani looks to repeat Jio as Reliance ties up with Nvidia to build AI infra

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani Thursday said the conglomerate will have to “repeat a Jio” for artificial intelligence to be affordable and available to common Indians.

“It is important that we design and build infrastructure so that to use AI our customers don’t have to charge their phones, computers but they can still get good quality AI and we take the burden of putting the infrastructure together,” Ambani says in a chat with Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

Reliance is partnering with Nvidia to set up AI infrastructure in India.

“Where I see our partnership. I was waiting for your GB200s to mature. I don’t like doing anything but the best technology. Your GB200 is the best technology and India will start with the best that you have,” Ambani tells Huang.

Reliance is setting up gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in Jamnagar, powered entirely by Reliance's green energy. “In Jamnagar, we are ready for a big scale-up in infrastructure. We are building infra for 1 gigawatt which is expandable to multiple gigawatts at one location. We already have green power. We are building this so that we can scale this and as your multiple technologies come, we will build our infrastructure,” says Ambani.

Crediting Jio for building India’s telecom infrastructure, Ambani says, “We are fortunate to have connectivity infrastructure which is equivalent to the roads. If you don’t have roads, you will not reach your destination. Today, apart from the U.S. and China, India has the best digital connectivity infrastructure – 4G, 5G and broadband,” he says. “Jio took India from 158 to number 1 in the world in eight years. We as a company didn’t know anything about this domain but today we are the largest data company in the world. Our volumes are equivalent to AT&T and Verizon combined,” Ambani explains.

Ambani says the most satisfying part is that in the U.S., customers pay $5 for 1 GB data while in India Jio delivers data at 15 cents a GB. The world average is $3.5 for a GB.

“This is the reason that India will be one of the biggest intelligence markets and it’s not only our aspirations but the raw gene pool and raw gene power and youth power that exists in India that is going to drive intelligence. Once we drive intelligence for our domestic market, we will use intelligent services beyond software to integrate with the rest of the world. Indians now will not only export CEOs to the world’s largest companies but hundreds of millions of Indians,” says Ambani.

Talking about India young population, Ambani says India is the only country in the world where average age of 1.4 billion people is under 35.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in terms of converting India to a premier digital society has been vital and continues to drive activity at the ground level, says Ambani.

“Our fastest growing industry is global competency centres. We do space research, pharmaceutical research. We are in the process of building chips in India. India is fast becoming an innovation hub for the world,” he says.

Jenseng also recounted his interactions with the Indian Prime Minister where PM Modi told him that India should not export data to import intelligence. Nvidia has around 10,000 engineers in India.