After cheap data, Jio bets on affordable AI for every Indian by decade-end

New Delhi, June 19: After disrupting India's telecom market with low-cost data, Jio is now aiming to make artificial intelligence affordable and accessible for millions of Indians. Speaking at Reliance Industries' annual general meeting on Friday, Jio Platforms Chairman Akash Ambani announced that Reliance Intelligence is building India's sovereign AI backbone in Jamnagar, Gujarat, powered entirely by clean energy generated from Reliance's renewable energy facilities in Kutch. Ambani said the biggest challenge facing AI adoption in India is the limited availability and high cost of computing power. To address this, Reliance Intelligence is setting up advanced AI infrastructure, with the first 120 megawatts of capacity scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2026. The company has also begun deploying NVIDIA's latest GB300 graphics processing units (GPUs). According to Ambani, the initial compute capacity will be equivalent to more than 75,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs on an AI inference basis and could eventually scale to over 2 lakh H100-equivalent GPUs. He said the project would place Reliance among the world's largest AI infrastructure builders. Reliance Intelligence is being developed as a sovereign, secure and green AI platform for consumer, enterprise and government applications. The company plans to roll out a suite of AI services, including Jio Bharat IQ, AI Vyapar, Jio Health IQ, Jio Learn IQ and Jio Krishi IQ. These platforms will support users across 22 Indian languages. Jio Bharat IQ will function as an AI assistant for consumers, while AI Vyapar will help small businesses improve productivity and customer engagement. Jio Health IQ, Jio Learn IQ and Jio Krishi IQ will focus on healthcare, education and agriculture respectively. "AI must be easy to use, trusted to rely on and affordable for all," Ambani said. He stressed that Jio is building AI natively in Indian languages rather than developing it in English and translating it later. "Whether it is a farmer in Maharashtra or a student in Tamil Nadu, the AI should understand and respond in their language," he said. Ambani also announced deeper partnerships with Google, Meta and NVIDIA. Google AI Pro, powered by Gemini, is already available free of cost to hundreds of millions of Jio users, he said. Reliance's partnership with Meta will help bring the Llama open-source AI ecosystem to Indian enterprises through sovereign hosting and locally managed infrastructure. Drawing parallels with Jio's telecom revolution, Ambani said Reliance Intelligence would fundamentally change AI economics in India. "Just as Jio made data affordable for every Indian, Reliance Intelligence will make AI dramatically more affordable for every Indian by the end of this decade," he said. Looking ahead, Ambani said Jio's next phase of growth will focus on universal 5G adoption, expansion of Jio AirFiber, AI-led digital transformation, global technology exports and satellite connectivity. He added that Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign low-earth-orbit satellite constellation for India while also partnering with global satellite operators to expand broadband coverage. "Our target is to migrate all subscribers to 5G by 2030 while advancing India's leadership in 6G standards," Ambani said.