AI ‘Everywhere for Every Indian’: Mukesh Ambani Launches Reliance Intelligence
The billionaire Mukesh Ambani promised artificial intelligence (AI) "everywhere and for every Indian" when he inaugurated Reliance Intelligence, a fully-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
The $208 billion conglomerate's promoter emphasized that the new AI division might have "just as large, if not larger" an impact on the group's future as its foray into mobile internet-driven digital services did ten years prior.
Ambani made the announcement during the company's 48th annual general meeting in Mumbai that Reliance Intelligence had been launched with ₹1 crore in paid-up capital. At the same time, the company announced that it was expanding its relationships for AI applications and services with Google and Meta Platforms, two of its current shareholders. The two large IT firms own 7.73% and 9.99% of Ambani's Jio Platforms Ltd., which was established in 2016 and is largely fueled by Reliance Jio, a telecom provider.
Ambani outlined "four clear missions" for its AI venture, one of which was to establish gigawatt-scale data centers in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The last three tasks were forming alliances with multinational digital companies, developing AI applications aimed at consumers and businesses, and assembling a team of "world-class researchers, engineers, designers, and product builders" who would work on AI.
In particular, Reliance Intelligence's alliance with Google will support the company's assertion that it must construct massive data centers, which industry participants stated is essential given that India's net data center capacity is still inadequate. In the meantime, RIL and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta will collaborate to invest $100 million in the development of an open-source AI platform-as-a-service for enterprises. At 70%, Reliance will own the majority of this business.
“AI is already at the heart of Reliance's transformation into a deep-tech enterprise… A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance. Now, the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger. Jio promised and delivered digital everywhere and for every Indian. Similarly, Reliance Intelligence promises to deliver AI everywhere for every Indian," Ambani, chairman of RIL, said about the new venture. "With Reliance Intelligence and our strong partnerships, green infrastructure, and India-first governance, we are building for the next decade with confidence and ambition.”
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Only two and a half years after ChatGPT made generative AI a common topic of conversation, Ambani is making a new push into AI. Since then, businesses have been trying to figure out how to change and adapt AI to meet their objectives for digital transformation.
Meanwhile, consumers are witnessing a growing array of AI tools, such as picture editors, proofreaders, and even educational assistants—OpenAI, a Silicon Valley star, has partnered with Indian government agencies on education.
Reliance's drive is expected to help generative AI apps spread among the nation's mainstream users, despite the fact that AI and mobile internet are essentially separate concepts, according to industry consultants.
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Even the revelation of Jio's plan to go public by the first part of the next year, together with guest addresses from Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Zuckerberg of Meta, did not inspire investors. Shares of RIL finished 2.2% down on Friday.
“The data centre move is a much-required one. The US has over 51 megawatt (MW) of per-capita data centre capacity, while India’s capacity stands only at 1MW. While a large amount of data centre capacity is being built by India right now, the market currently remains underserved," said Kashyap Kompella, an AI and technology consultant. "On this note, the first part of Reliance’s AI missions is on-point. The second part is where Reliance already has unprecedented scale, and would be capable of integrating AI into its services at scale, is in applications—here, building for India-specific languages and use cases will likely see consideration reception going forward,” Kompella said.