Ambani pledges Rs 10 lakh cr investment to make AI affordable

New Delhi: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced a Rs 10 lakh crore investment in artificial intelligence over the next seven years, pledging to do with AI what his group had achieved with making mobile and internet data affordable and accessible across India. Speaking at the India IA Impact Summit, Ambani said the initiative will connect every citizen, business, and government service to AI, echoing the transformative scale of Jio's digital revolution. "Jio connected India to the Internet Era. Jio will now connect India to the Intelligence Era...India cannot afford to rent intelligence. Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did in the case of data," Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd, said. The investment, totalling Rs 10 lakh crore over seven years, will focus on three pillars - gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, leveraging up to 10 GW of green power surplus, and a nationwide edge-compute layer integrated with telecom and digital operator Jio's networks to deliver low-latency AI across India. "Jio, together with Reliance, will invest Rs 10 lakh crore over the next seven years," he said. "This is not a speculative investment. It is not for chasing valuation. This is patient, disciplined, nation-building capital - designed to create durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades to come."

Stating that telecom operator Jio will play an even bigger role in India's AI transformation, he said it will deliver intelligence to every citizen, every sector of the economy, every facet of social development, and every service of government. "Jio will do so with the same reliability, quality, scale, and extreme affordability that transformed connectivity. India cannot afford to rent intelligence. "Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of data," he said. Jio Intelligence will build India's sovereign compute infrastructure, including gigawatt-scale data centres, up to 10 GW of ready green power, and an edge-compute layer, deeply integrated with Jio's network, which will make intelligence responsive, low-latency and affordable for everyone - from kirana stores to clinics, from classrooms to farms. Ambani outlined five guiding principles for Jio Intelligence: prioritising AI for deep-tech, manufacturing, and the informal sector; world-leading multilingual AI; responsibility, security and data residency; creating high-skill employment; and building a robust AI ecosystem with enterprises, startups, and research institutions. The group has already begun deploying AI applications for inclusive development, including JioShikshak for adaptive learning in 22 languages, JioArogyAI for rapid medical guidance, JioKrishi to help 140 million farmers increase yields, and JioBharatIQ, a voice-first AI assistant for education, employment, and government services. Ambani framed the effort as part of India's broader mission to lead the AI century and bridge the Global South and North. "Let us combine Intelligence with empathy and build a better future for all," he said, calling AI a tool to realise India's vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Ambani said AI can usher in an era of super-abundance. "A world without poverty and a future of prosperity for all the eight billion people on our beautiful planet is now within sight, within reach." AI, he said, is not just another technology. For the first time, humans are creating human-like systems that can learn, speak, analyse, move and produce autonomously. "We are only at the dawn of this era. The best of AI is yet to come," he said. Ambani said that today, the world is debating a profound question: will AI concentrate power in the hands of a few or will it democratise opportunity for all? "Our polarised world stands at a fork. One path has led to a situation where AI is scarce and expensive; compute is concentrated; data is controlled; and capability is locked behind barriers of capital and geography in the Global North. In this dismal scenario, inequality widens - between nations, within societies, and across generations. "But there is another path. A future where AI is available, affordable and beneficial to all," he said. The latter is India's path. India, he said, will emerge as one of the greatest AI powers in the world in the 21st century. "In the coming decades... No country in the world can match India's strength in demography, democracy, development, digital infrastructure, data generation and AI harvest." He recounted India's successes - it is the world's largest mobile data consumer with nearly one billion internet users, with data costs among the lowest globally, over 12 billion digital transactions monthly and home to the top three startup ecosystems.