Reliance rides AI wave with backing from global tech majors Google, Meta

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Friday announced the group’s foray into artificial intelligence (AI) with the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence. 

 

This has the goal of making Reliance a deep-tech enterprise.

 

For this Ambani announced joint ventures with Google and Meta, two of the world’s largest tech firms.

 

“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 said.

 

Ambani added Reliance Intelligence had four key missions. The first is to house the country’s next-gen AI infrastructure. For this the group has begun AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar.

 

The second is bringing the world’s best tech titans and open-source communities together.

 

The third is bringing AI services to India for enterprises, including small and medium enterprises, and government.

 

And finally it is housing AI talent.

 

Taking its relationship with Google further, Ambani said with Google the conglomerate would leverage the tech behemoths cloud and AI technologies.

 

Sundar Pichai, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Google, in a pre-recorded video message said: “Our work together over the last decade has helped bring affordable internet access to millions, helping to power India’s digital revolution. And now we are building on this to help shape the next leap with AI.”

 

He added the AI opportunity in India would transform every industry and organisation — from the largest enterprises to the smallest kirana store.

 

Google and Reliance are together establishing a Jamnagar Cloud region, built for and dedicated to Reliance.

 

Additionally, Ambani announced the formation of a joint venture (JV) with Meta to make use of the latter’s open source AI models. Under the new JV, both the firms have committed $100 million as initial investment.

 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, in a video message said: “We’re excited to deepen our partnership with Reliance to bring the power of open-source AI to Indian developers and enterprises. Through this joint venture, we’re putting Meta’s Llama models into real-world use, and I’m looking forward to Meta expanding its footprint in the enterprise space as we unlock new possibilities together.”

 

These announcements with big techs come even as the American government has announced 50 per cent tariffs on India.

 

Both Meta and Google have invested in the Reliance Jio business.

 

In 2020, Google had announced an investment of $4.5 billion and Meta $5.7 billion.