Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani made an artificial intelligence (AI) push at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday in New Delhi, saying the country can’t depend on “renting” intelligence. His remarks comes amid a global race for tech dominance, with China and the US engaging in bitter rivalry.
At the AI Impact Summit, Mukesh Ambani outlined a transformative roadmap for India’s technological future. Speaking under the theme “AI for VIKSIT BHARAT,” Ambani framed artificial intelligence not merely as a software upgrade, but as a “modern-day Akshaya Patra”, a source of limitless enrichment for the nation’s economy and social fabric.
He emphasised that while the previous decade was defined by establishing world-class connectivity, the coming years would be defined by the democratisation of intelligence.
Ambani made several landmark announcements, most notably a massive commitment of Rs 10 lakh crores over the next seven years. This capital is earmarked for building “sovereign compute infrastructure,” including gigawatt-scale data centers in Jamnagar and a nationwide edge-compute network. By leveraging Reliance’s green energy surplus, the goal is to make high-powered computing as affordable and ubiquitous as mobile data.
The address also showcased practical applications already in motion, such as Jio Shikshak for education and Jio Krishi for farmers. Ambani concluded by asserting that India is uniquely positioned to bridge the global digital divide, ensuring that the “Intelligence Era” fosters inclusion and prosperity for every Indian citizen, rather than concentrating power in the hands of a few.
Read the full text here:
The Global AI Impact Summit is a defining moment in India’s tech history—a moment when India pledges to make AI one of the driving forces to realise its dream of a Viksit Bharat. This is the dream of becoming a fully developed nation by 2047, the glorious centenary of our Independence.
We are deeply honoured that our Most Respected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is the guide, philosopher, and leader of this Summit. Honourable Minister Shri Vaishnav and his wonderful team deserve full praise for organizing this summit on a grand scale, befitting India’s ambition. Modi ji’s vision of AI-powered Viksit Bharat is also a template for a Viksit Global South. If wisely used, I believe AI can usher in an era of superabundance. 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.
Friends, Artificial Intelligence is not just another technology. For the first time, humans are creating human-like systems that can learn, speak, analyse, move, and produce autonomously. AI is the mantra that powers every yantra, or every machine and system, to work faster, better, and smarter. I see AI as a modern-day Akshaya Patra—the legendary vessel in Mahabharata that provided endless nourishment to all. Likewise, AI offers limitless augmentation in knowledge, efficiency, and productivity. We are only at the dawn of this era; the best of AI is yet to come.
Distinguished Participants in this Summit, 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? Do we act as isolated nations or as a united global family? Our polarized 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. As our Prime Minister said, India believes in this second future. Dear Friends, from the podium of this summit, today I want to make a bold prediction. India will emerge as one of the greatest AI powers in the world in the 21st century.
My confidence is validated by an undeniable truth: 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.
Let me begin, as was said many times this morning, with what India has achieved in the past ten years. First, India is the world’s largest mobile data consumer with nearly one billion internet users and data costs among the lowest globally. In terms of quality, there is no difference between Delhi and the remotest Indian village.
Second, Aadhaar provides 1.4 billion digital IDs.
Third, UPI processes over 12 billion transactions monthly.
Fourth, India ranks among the top three startup ecosystems, with 100,000 startups and over 100 unicorns.
Fifth, India’s secure and inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure stack is now being adopted by countries around the globe.
Friends, in all humility, I wish to state that Jio, with over 500 million loyal subscribers, was privileged to play a leading role in this transformation across broadband, 4G, 5G, and home connectivity. With equal humility, I would like to announce that Jio will play an even bigger role in India’s AI transformation. Today, on behalf of the Reliance Group and Jio Intelligence, I want to make three announcements.
Announcement One: Jio connected India to the Internet Era; Jio will now connect India to the Intelligence Era. We 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.
Announcement Two: Jio, together with Reliance, will invest ₹10 lakh crores over the next seven years starting this year. This is not speculative investment, nor is it for chasing valuation. This is patient, disciplined, nation-building capital designed to create durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades to come.
Announcement Three: Jio Intelligence will build India’s sovereign compute infrastructure through three bold initiatives. One: Gigawatt-Scale Data Centres. We have already started construction on multi-gigawatt, AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar. Over 120 MW will come online in the second half of 2026, with a clear path to gigawatt-scale compute for training and large-scale inference.
Two: Our Green Energy Advantage. We have an in-house energy advantage with up to 10 GW of ready green-power surplus, anchored by solar in both Kutch and Andhra Pradesh. Three: A Nationwide Edge Compute.
An edge-compute layer, deeply integrated with Jio’s network, will make intelligence responsive, low-latency, and affordable—close to where Indians live, learn, and work. From kirana stores to clinics, from classrooms to farms, intelligence will live at the edge. Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity. When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable.
Friends, Jio Intelligence is guided by five non-negotiable principles.
First: AI for India’s deep-tech and advanced manufacturing leadership, reaching not just large enterprises but agriculture, small businesses, and the informal sector. Jio Intelligence will not simply be a search or an ask tool; it will primarily be a resource for multiplying productivity and efficiency.
Second: World-leading multilingual AI capability across all 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. Jio AI Bharat ki bhaasha mein bolega, Bharat ki sanskruti mein phoolega, Bharat ki mitti mein phalega.
Third: Responsibility, security, data residency, and trust as Jio’s core guarantees—not an afterthought.
Fourth: We will prove that AI does not take away jobs. Rather, it will create new high-skill work opportunities.
And fifth: The AI story has shifted from “Who has the best model” to “Who can build the strongest ecosystem for speed and scale of usage.”
Therefore, we will build a deep partnership ecosystem with Indian enterprises, startups, IITs, IISc, and research institutions. We will work shoulder-to-shoulder with India’s leading industrial groups to embed AI across manufacturing, logistics, energy, finance, retail, agriculture, and healthcare.
We will empower startups 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. 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.
Dear Friends, I believe that social relevance—not momentary craze—should drive AI growth in India. Jio has already started AI applications for the most pressing challenges in inclusive development. In education, we have JioShikshak, an adaptive AI teaching assistant in 22 languages.
When 250 million school children and 50 million students in higher education are empowered by AI Teachers, no power on earth can match India’s Talent Wealth. In healthcare, Jio ArogyaAI delivers first medical guidance in under five minutes, in local languages, on any phone. In agriculture, JioKrishi converts satellite imagery and precision weather into simple voice-first advice to 140 million farmers to help improve their income.
In everyday life, JioBharatIQ is a voice-first AI companion helping Indians learn, earn, and access government services at Bharat scale. From wearables to fully connected homes, JioFrames—an AI glass device—and next-generation AI devices will make intelligence truly ambient, as effortless and as natural as human conversation.
Through JioHotstar, AI will multiply Indian creativity with multilingual storytelling. We will popularize India’s rich cultural heritage with futuristic technology, enhancing India’s Soft Power globally.
Friends, this inaugural Global AI Impact Summit in India has received a massive response. What does that show? It shows that AI is now becoming a people’s movement worldwide. The success of this movement hinges critically on global cooperation—and not polarization.
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 India serves as the 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. Today, at this summit, let us all pledge to transform this noble aspiration into reality using the most powerful gift of the human mind: AI. Let us combine Intelligence with Empathy, and let us build a better future for all.
End of Article
