Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited
At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, spoke about artificial intelligence (AI) as a driver of Viksit Bharat and a stronger Global South. He also outlined Reliance Jio’s plans to build sovereign compute infrastructure and deliver intelligence at scale. Edited excerpts from his address…
AI as the engine for Viksit Bharat and shared prosperity
AI 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, every machine and system to work faster, better and smarter. AI will be one of the driving forces to realise India’s dream of a Viksit Bharat, the dream of becoming a fully developed nation by 2047.
Two paths: Scarcity or access
The world is debating a profound question: will AI concentrate power in the hands of a few or will it democratise opportunity for all? 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 scenario, inequality widens among nations, within societies and across generations.
But there is another path, a future where AI is available, affordable and beneficial to all. India believes in this second future, and it will emerge as one of the greatest AI powers in the world in the 21st century.
Jio’s role in the intelligence era
Jio connected India to the internet era and it 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 the government, 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.
Further, Jio, together with Reliance, will invest Rs 10 trillion over the next seven years, starting this year. This is not speculative investment and 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.
The biggest constraint in AI today is not talent or imagination. It is scarcity and the high cost of compute. Therefore, Jio Intelligence will build India’s sovereign compute infrastructure through three initiatives: GW-scale data centres, a green energy advantage and a nationwide edge compute layer. We have started construction on multi-GW, AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar, with over 120 MW coming online in the second half of 2026; and a clear path to GW-scale compute for training and large-scale inference. We have an in-house energy advantage with up to 10 GW of ready green power surplus, anchored by solar in Kutch, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. We will build an edge compute layer, deeply integrated with Jio’s network, to make intelligence responsive, low latency and affordable, close to where Indians live, learn and work.
Principles and partnerships
Jio Intelligence is guided by five non-negotiable principles. AI should reach not just large enterprises but agriculture, small businesses and the informal sector, and it should multiply productivity and efficiency. We need world-leading multilingual AI capability across all Indian languages, because when people speak to AI in their own words, that is inclusion. Responsibility, security, data residency and trust must be core guarantees, not an afterthought. We will prove that AI does not take away jobs; rather, it will create new high-skill work opportunities. 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 deep partnership ecosystems with Indian enterprises, start-ups, IITs, the IISc and other 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.
Outlook
AI is becoming a people’s movement worldwide. Its success hinges on global cooperation, not polarisation, because AI works through sharing, not hoarding, and through collaboration, not conflict. India’s unique strength is that it can serve as a bridge between the Global South and the Global North, and we should use AI with intelligence and empathy to build a better future for all.
