Mukesh Ambani teams up with Google, Meta to build India’s AI backbone

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries, has announced an ambitious new venture aimed at transforming India into a global hub for artificial intelligence. Speaking at the company’s 48th annual general meeting on Friday, Ambani launched Reliance Intelligence, a wholly owned subsidiary that will build national-scale AI infrastructure and enterprise solutions through strategic partnerships with some of the world’s biggest tech firms.

Building India’s AI Backbone

“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 said in his keynote. “Ideas will become innovations and applications, providing solutions to India and the world.”

The venture’s first initiative is a partnership with Google Cloud to create a dedicated AI cloud infrastructure in India. The project will start with a massive data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, leveraging Reliance Jio’s network and the company’s energy assets to support large-scale AI deployments for businesses, developers, and government institutions.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in a video message, called the collaboration “only the beginning,” highlighting Google’s role as Reliance’s largest public cloud partner and its joint efforts on “advanced AI initiatives.”

Reliance and Meta: A $100 Million AI Push

Reliance also announced a joint venture with Meta to deliver enterprise AI services in India and select international markets. The companies are committing a combined investment of ₹8.55 billion (approximately $100 million), with Reliance holding a 70% stake.

The partnership will center on Meta’s Llama-based enterprise AI platform-as-a-service, enabling businesses to build and deploy custom generative AI models across sectors like sales, marketing, IT, customer service, and finance. The joint venture will also roll out pre-configured AI solutions for quick adoption.

“Through this joint venture, we’re putting Meta’s Llama models into real-world use,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Expanding Ambitions: IPOs, Partnerships, and Consumer AI

Ambani also revealed that Reliance Jio Platforms is preparing for an international expansion and plans to go public in the first half of 2026, after earlier delays.

In addition, Reliance is reportedly in talks with OpenAI, which recently launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT subscription in India and announced plans to open an office in New Delhi. The details of this partnership could be unveiled during Sam Altman’s visit to India next month.

Reliance is no stranger to AI collaborations. It already works with Microsoft Azure for cloud services and offers its own consumer product, JioAICloud, which provides 100GB of free storage to 40 million users. The platform recently introduced new features like voice search and an AI Create Hub for turning photos into AI-powered reels, collages, and promotional videos.

AI for Consumers: Smart Glasses, Streaming, and Beyond

The AGM also showcased Reliance’s push into consumer AI. Highlights included:

• JioFrames, AI-powered smart glasses positioned as rivals to Snap’s Spectacles and Ray-Ban Meta’s smart eyewear.
• New AI features in JioHotstar, which has already attracted 600 million users and 300 million paying subscribers within three months of launch. Updates include:
  • “Riya,” a voice assistant for personalized recommendations.
  • Real-time content translation into Indian languages using AI-powered voice cloning and lip-syncing.

India’s AI Race Heats Up

Reliance’s aggressive AI expansion comes amid intensifying competition in India. Rival Bharti Airtel partnered earlier this year with Perplexity to provide over 360 million subscribers free access to Perplexity Pro for 12 months.

For Reliance, however, the vision is far larger: to position India as a global player in artificial intelligence, challenging the dominance of the U.S. and China while building indigenous capacity for research, innovation, and enterprise deployment.

If successful, Ambani’s Reliance Intelligence could become the cornerstone of India’s AI economy — and perhaps its biggest technological export.