Mukesh Ambani announces ₹10 lakh crore AI investment, plans sovereign compute push

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a ₹10 lakh crore investment over seven years to build AI infrastructure and scale what he called India’s “intelligence era.”

In a keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit, Ambani said, “Jio, together with Reliance, will invest 10 lakh crores over the next seven years, starting this year. This is not a speculative investment. It is not a purchasing valuation. This is patient, disciplined, nation-building capital designed to create durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades to come.”

He said the biggest constraint in AI today is not talent but compute. “The biggest constraint in AI today is not talent or imagination. It is the scarcity and high cost of computing.”

To address this, he announced sovereign AI infrastructure through three initiatives. First, multi-gigawatt AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, with over 120 MW expected to go live in the second half of 2026 and a path to gigawatt-scale capacity. Second, green energy backing, with up to 10 GW of surplus renewable power in Kutch and Andhra Pradesh. Third, a nationwide edge compute network integrated with Jio’s telecom network.

“India cannot afford to rent intelligence. Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of data.” Ambani said Jio’s goal is to make AI as widespread as mobile connectivity. “Our resolve is clear. Make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity. When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable.” 

He added that Jio Intelligence will focus on productivity across sectors, multilingual AI in Indian languages, data security and job creation. “We will prove that AI does not take away jobs. Rather, it will create new high-skill work opportunities.”

Jio Intelligence to be built around five principles:

“Jio Intelligence will not simply be a search or an ask tool. It will primarily be a resource for multiplying productivity and efficiency,” Ambani said. The second focus is multilingual capability across Indian languages. “When farmers and artisans speak to AI in their own words, and students learn in their own mother tongue, this is not convenience, this is inclusion."

Third, he said responsibility, security, data residency and trust will be core guarantees, not afterthoughts. Fourth, he pushed back against fears around employment. “We will prove that AI does not take away jobs. Rather, it will create new high-skill work opportunities.”

The fifth principle is ecosystem depth. “The AI story has shifted from who has the best model to who can build the strongest ecosystem for speed and scale of usage.”

He said Jio will partner with Indian enterprises, startups, IITs, IISc and research institutions, and work with industrial groups to embed AI across manufacturing, logistics, energy, finance, retail, agriculture and healthcare. Startups will be supported with affordable compute and co-development platforms.

“We will aspire to produce global breakthroughs in compute architecture, foundation models, and energy efficiency, designed in India, rooted in our values, powered by our talent, and scaled for humanity. And we will partner with the very best tech companies in the world, not as importers of intelligence, but as co-architects of a new AI century.”

He added that AI growth in India must be driven by long-term social relevance, not short-term hype.

Ambani also outlined early applications. In education, Jio Shikshak is positioned as an adaptive AI teaching assistant in 22 languages. In healthcare, Jio Arogya AI aims to deliver initial medical guidance in under five minutes in local languages on any phone. In agriculture, Jio Krishi uses satellite imagery and weather data to provide voice-based advice to farmers. For consumers, Jio Bharat IQ is designed as a voice-first AI assistant to help users learn, earn and access services.

He said future devices, including Jio Frames and other connected products, will make AI more ambient and integrated into daily life, while platforms such as JioHotstar will use AI to expand multilingual storytelling and showcase Indian culture globally.

Ambani also positioned India as a future AI leader. “India will emerge as one of the greatest AI powers in the world in the 21st century.” Citing India’s digital base of nearly 1 billion internet users, Aadhaar, UPI and a large startup ecosystem, he said the country has the scale and infrastructure to lead. He framed AI as a force that should remain open and widely accessible, not concentrated in a few hands, and called for global cooperation to ensure its benefits are shared.

He urged that AI should be global and accessible to all. “Be it chips or rare earths, AI works its magic through sharing, not hoarding, through collaborations, not conflicts. The unique strength of India is that it serves as a vital bridge connecting the global south and the global north. After all, south or north, east or west, all of us have only one earth, one family and one future,” he concluded.