Reliance Industries Limited has announced plans to invest 10 lakh crore rupees over the next seven years to build what it described as India’s sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure, marking one of the largest technology investment commitments in the country’s history.
Addressing delegates at the AI Impact Summit, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the group would focus on large scale compute capacity, green energy powered data centres and nationwide edge intelligence integrated with the Jio network.
“This is not speculative investment. It is not purchasing valuation,” Ambani said. “This is patient, disciplined nation building capital designed to create durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades to come.”
Focus On Affordable And Accessible Intelligence
Ambani positioned artificial intelligence as a foundational technology with transformative economic implications, arguing that access and affordability would determine whether AI narrows or widens inequality.
“India cannot afford to rent intelligence,” he said. “We will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we reduced the cost of data.”
He added that Jio, which previously expanded broadband and 4G access across the country, would now seek to “connect India to the intelligence era”, delivering AI capabilities to citizens, enterprises and public services at scale.
Sovereign Compute And Green Energy
The investment will include the construction of multi gigawatt AI ready data centres, with more than 120 megawatts expected to come online in the second half of 2026. The facilities will be supported by up to 10 gigawatts of surplus green energy, primarily solar, in Kutch and Andhra Pradesh.
Reliance also plans to deploy a nationwide edge compute layer embedded within Jio’s telecom network to enable low latency AI applications across sectors including agriculture, healthcare, education, manufacturing and retail.
Ambani said the group’s strategy would be guided by five principles, including multilingual AI across Indian languages, data residency and security, job creation through high skill roles, and collaboration with research institutions and startups.
Alignment With National Vision
The announcement aligns with the broader digital transformation agenda articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose vision of an AI powered Viksit Bharat was referenced during the summit.
“From the podium of this summit today, I want to make a bold prediction,” Ambani said. “India will emerge as one of the greatest AI powers in the world in the 21st century.”
He cited India’s digital public infrastructure, nearly one billion internet users, widespread adoption of Aadhaar and UPI, and a rapidly expanding startup ecosystem as structural advantages in the global AI race.
From Connectivity To Intelligence
Reliance framed the initiative as the next chapter in India’s digital evolution. Having previously reduced the cost of data and expanded connectivity to over 500 million subscribers, the company now aims to make intelligence as ubiquitous as internet access.
“When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation becomes inevitable,” Ambani said.
Industry observers view the move as both an economic and geopolitical statement, signalling India’s intent to build domestic AI capability rather than depend solely on foreign platforms.
If implemented at scale, the investment could materially strengthen India’s position in global AI infrastructure, while reshaping how intelligence is accessed, priced and governed in one of the world’s largest digital markets.
