India's richest man Mukesh Ambani just fired the opening shot in the country's AI infrastructure war. Reliance Industries unveiled a new subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence at its annual meeting Friday, backed by a $100 million joint venture with Meta and a major cloud partnership with Google. The move positions India to challenge the U.S.-China AI duopoly through homegrown infrastructure.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani just announced India's most ambitious AI infrastructure play yet. Speaking at the conglomerate's 48th annual general meeting Friday, India's richest man unveiled Reliance Intelligence, a new subsidiary designed to build what he calls the country's AI backbone through strategic partnerships with tech giants Google and Meta.
The announcement sent immediate ripples through India's tech sector, where local companies have struggled to compete with U.S. and Chinese AI dominance. "Reliance Intelligence will create a home for world-class researchers, engineers, designers, and product builders, combining the speed of research with the rigor of engineering," Ambani declared, "so that ideas become innovations and applications, providing solutions to India and the world."
The first major partnership pairs Reliance with Google Cloud to build dedicated AI infrastructure starting with a major data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The facility will leverage Jio's existing telecom network and Reliance's energy assets to support large-scale AI deployments for businesses, developers, and government bodies. Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared via video message, calling the partnership "only the beginning" of deeper AI collaboration between the companies.
But the real financial firepower comes from Meta. The social media giant committed to a ₹8.55 billion ($100 million) joint venture with Reliance under a 70-30 ownership split. The partnership will deploy Meta's Llama-based enterprise AI platform across India and select international markets, targeting use cases in sales, marketing, customer service, and finance. "Through this joint venture, we're putting Meta's Llama models into real-world use," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a prepared statement.
The timing couldn't be more strategic. Meta recently restructured its AI operations into a new Superintelligence Labs division after an expensive hiring spree that reportedly . The partnership offers Meta a path to monetize its AI investments in the world's most populous market.
