Reliance to invest ₹10 lakh crore in AI as Jio drives India infrastructure push

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani unveiled a massive ₹10 lakh crore roadmap for artificial intelligence on Friday, positioning Jio as the bedrock of India’s digital future. Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Ambani declared that India “cannot afford to rent intelligence” and pledged to make compute power as affordable and ubiquitous as mobile data.

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The investment, spread over the next seven years starting in 2026, marks the largest single-corporate commitment to AI in the Global South. Ambani described the capital as “patient and nation-building,” intended to create strategic resilience rather than short-term valuation gains.

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Democratizing Intelligence: The Jio Playbook

Ambani’s core thesis is simple: replicate the “Jio effect” for AI. By drastically reducing the cost of compute, Reliance aims to catalyze a wave of domestic innovation. “We will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of data,” he told an audience that included OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai.

This “Sovereign Compute” strategy relies on an edge-compute layer integrated directly into Jio’s massive 5G network. This setup ensures that AI applications are responsive and low-latency, enabling real-time use cases in manufacturing and healthcare.

Gigawatt Infrastructure: From Jamnagar to Calcutta

The physical backbone of this plan is a network of gigawatt-scale data centers.

• Jamnagar Hub: Construction has already begun on multi-gigawatt, AI-ready facilities. The first phase, delivering 120MW of capacity, is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026.

• Calcutta Expansion: Jio has initiated work on a new data center on a 40-acre plot in Rajarhat’s Silicon Valley Hub.

• Green Power: Addressing environmental concerns, Ambani highlighted RIL’s 10GW green-power surplus anchored by solar projects in Kutch and Andhra Pradesh. This ensures that India’s AI growth does not escalate its carbon footprint.

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The AI Ecosystem: Jobs, Skills, and Partnerships

Responding to fears of “AI-led job losses,” Ambani asserted that the technology would create new “high-skill opportunities” rather than wiping out roles. Reliance plans to embed AI across its diverse portfolio—manufacturing, retail, and finance—while forging research partnerships with premier institutions like the IITs and IISc.

The strategy emphasizes a shift from building the “best model” to building the “strongest ecosystem.” By working with leading industrial groups, Reliance intends to automate logistics and agriculture at a scale previously unseen in India.

Reality Check

The ₹10 lakh crore figure is jaw-dropping. Still, this investment is spread over seven years and includes RIL’s existing capital expenditure in green energy and 5G. Therefore, the “pure AI” spend might be a fraction of the total headline figure. In fact, building gigawatt-scale data centers is a decade-long endeavor. While 120MW is coming by late 2026, reaching a “multi-gigawatt” scale will require navigating complex global GPU supply chains and domestic power grid upgrades.

The Loopholes

Ambani claims RIL will “reduce the cost of intelligence.” In fact, compute costs are heavily tied to the price of Nvidia chips and electricity. Therefore, unless India develops its own high-end silicon, Reliance remains dependent on global pricing tiers. Still, the 10GW green-energy surplus is a major “cost-loophole” closer; by using its own solar power, RIL can theoretically offer compute rates much lower than competitors who buy power from the grid.

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What This Means for You

If you are an Indian entrepreneur or developer, the “Jio AI Cloud” could be your most affordable path to scaling. First, look for the rollout of Jio’s low-latency edge services in late 2026. Then, expect a wave of “AI-first” consumer apps—from personalized retail to automated agri-advice—bundled with your Jio subscriptions.

Finally, realize that the IIT/IISc partnerships will likely result in thousands of new fellowships and research grants. You should pivot toward “AI-embedded” engineering and logistics roles. Before the 2026 launch, follow the updates on the Jamnagar data center to see when the first “compute-as-a-service” buckets become available for startups.

What’s Next

Reliance will finalize the initial 120MW phase of its Jamnagar data center by Q3 2026. Then, a new series of “Industry 4.0” partnerships with Indian manufacturing groups will be announced. Finally, the first batch of RIL-funded AI research centers at the IITs is expected to be operational by early 2027.

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