Reliance Industries just placed the biggest AI infrastructure bet in Indian history. The conglomerate's $110 billion investment plan centers on multi-gigawatt data centers in Jamnagar, with over 120 megawatts of capacity set to go live this year through its telecom arm Jio. The move positions India as a serious contender in the global AI race, directly challenging American and Chinese dominance in compute infrastructure while signaling chairman Mukesh Ambani's intent to transform Reliance from an oil-to-retail giant into an AI powerhouse.
Reliance Industries is making a statement that can't be ignored. The company's $110 billion commitment to AI infrastructure represents more capital than most countries spend on their entire tech sectors, and it's happening now with construction already underway in Jamnagar, according to TechCrunch.
The scale is staggering. Multi-gigawatt data centers don't just appear overnight, and Reliance's timeline suggests this has been in planning for months. The first phase brings more than 120 megawatts of AI compute capacity online in 2026, enough to train multiple large language models simultaneously or power thousands of enterprise AI applications. For context, that's comparable to what major hyperscalers deploy in regional hubs, but this is just the opening salvo.
Jio, Reliance's telecom division that already connects over 450 million Indians to mobile internet, is the strategic vehicle for this expansion. The company disrupted India's telecom market in 2016 with free data and dirt-cheap plans, forcing competitors to merge or exit. Now it's applying the same playbook to AI infrastructure: build massive capacity, undercut competitors on price, and capture market share at scale.
Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest person and Reliance's chairman, has been telegraphing this pivot for years. The conglomerate built its fortune on oil refining and petrochemicals, then diversified into retail and telecom. But AI infrastructure represents something different - a play for technological sovereignty as India tries to reduce dependence on American cloud providers and Chinese hardware.
