Billionaire Ambani Collaborates with Google and Meta to Build India’s AI Infrastructure

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person and chairman of Reliance Industries, has revealed an ambitious plan to establish the nation’s AI infrastructure through a newly created subsidiary, starting with significant partnerships with Google Cloud and Meta.

At the company’s 48th annual general meeting Friday, Ambani announced the formation of Reliance Intelligence, a new subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This initiative aims to construct a national-scale AI framework, offering enterprise tools and services across diverse sectors. It aligns with India’s goal to strengthen its position in the global AI landscape, traditionally dominated by the U.S. and China.

“Reliance Intelligence is envisioned as a center for elite researchers, engineers, designers, and product developers, combining rapid research with structured engineering,” Ambani stated during his keynote. “This will facilitate the transformation of concepts into innovations and applications, providing solutions for India and beyond.”

To initiate this project, Reliance has partnered with Google, one of its key tech allies, to create a dedicated AI cloud infrastructure in India. The project will begin with a major data center in Jamnagar, located in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

This dedicated cloud region will enable Reliance to offer AI-focused services to businesses of all sizes, developers, and government agencies, utilizing Jio’s network along with its energy resources for extensive deployments, as detailed in the companies’ joint announcement.

“As Reliance’s largest public cloud partner, Google Cloud not only supports critical workloads but also collaborates on innovative AI projects,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai via a video message during the virtual AGM. “This is just the beginning.”

Google has not yet responded to requests regarding the financial specifics of the partnership.

Additionally, Reliance has announced a joint venture with Meta, another significant technology investor, to develop and enhance enterprise AI solutions for clients in India and certain global markets. This partnership involves a total investment of ₹8.55 billion (about $100 million) with a 70:30 ownership split, respectively.

This collaboration will provide Meta’s Llama-based enterprise AI platform-as-a-service, allowing businesses to customize, implement, and manage generative AI models for applications in sales, marketing, IT, customer service, and finance. The joint venture will also include a variety of pre-configured AI solutions, according to the firms.

Reliance’s partnership comes shortly after Meta reorganized its AI initiatives into a new Superintelligence Labs, prompted by an expensive series of high-profile AI hires (although reports indicate Meta has paused hiring due to shareholder concerns).

“With this joint venture, we’re implementing Meta’s Llama models into real-world applications,” explained Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a formal statement.

This agreement is subject to standard regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalized in Q4 2025.

Ambani also expressed intentions for Reliance to expand its flagship subsidiary, Reliance Jio Platforms, into international markets. He indicated that Jio aims to file for an initial public offering in the first half of 2026, following significant anticipation and initial delays.

Additionally, Reliance is reportedly exploring a partnership with OpenAI, which recently introduced its sub-$5 ChatGPT subscription service in India and announced plans to open an office in New Delhi later this year. The specifics of this partnership are expected to be revealed during Sam Altman’s upcoming visit to India next month, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Both Reliance and OpenAI have not yet responded to requests for comments.

Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel, Reliance’s main competitor and the second-largest telecom provider in the country after Jio, collaborated with Perplexity to offer over 360 million Airtel subscribers access to Perplexity Pro for a year.

Reliance has also partnered with Microsoft to leverage its Azure cloud platform for Indian enterprises. The company introduced JioAICloud, a consumer-oriented service offering 100GB of free storage, which has gained 40 million users. This service has been enhanced with voice search capabilities and an AI Create Hub for converting photos into AI-generated reels, collages, and promotional videos, as shared during its annual general meeting.

Moreover, Reliance presented its AI-powered smart glasses, JioFrames, in direct competition with Snap’s Spectacles and Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The company is also integrating AI features into its streaming platform, JioHotstar, which has attracted over 600 million users and 300 million paying subscribers within three months of its February launch.

The new AI features include the “Riya” voice assistant and AI-driven content translation into various Indian languages using voice cloning and lip-syncing technology.