New Delhi: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday launched Reliance Intelligence, the wholly owned division of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
The new AI business, the promoter of the $200 billion conglomerate, could have an impact on the group's future “if not equally big, if not equally big” and “not equally big” as the mobile internet-driven digital services ventures did a decade ago.
Speaking at the company's 48th Annual Meeting in Mumbai, Ambani announced the launch of Reliance Intelligence with paying capital. £1 crawl. At the same time, the company announced an expansion of its partnership with existing shareholders (Google and Meta platforms) for AI applications and services. The two major tech companies hold 7.73% and 9.99% stake in Ambani's Jio Platforms Ltd. In 2016, mostly telecom operator Reliance Jio made money.
For AI ventures, Ambani emphasized “four clear missions.” This includes setting up a Gigawatt scale data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Three other missions included impressive partnerships with global high-tech companies, building AI applications for consumers and industries, and building a hub for employees working in AI, including “world-class researchers, engineers, designers and product builders.”
The partnership between Reliance Intelligence and Google specifically addresses the company's claims to build a large data center. This said industry stakeholders are essential as India is inadequate in terms of the capabilities of its net data centres. Meanwhile, through RIL, Mark Zuckerberg's partnership with Meta will allow the two companies to jointly invest $100 million to build an open source AI platform for businesses. Reliance holds the majority share of the venture at 70%.
“AI is already at the heart of Reliance's transformation into a deep technology company. Ten years ago, digital services became Reliance's new growth engine. Now, the opportunities before AI have committed to digital and provided digital anywhere. “With Reliance Intelligence and our strong partnership, green infrastructure and India's number one governance, we are building for the next 10 years with confidence and ambition.”
Ambani's new push to artificial intelligence comes just two and a half years after ChatGpt transforms the generated AI into a part of everyday conversation.
Since then, companies have been working to understand how to change AI and adapt it to their digital transformation goals. Meanwhile, consumers are seeing an increasing barrage of AI capabilities, including image editors, proofreaders and even educational assistants.
Industry consultants said that despite AI and mobile internet being fundamentally different propositions, Reliance's push is likely to help proliferate generative AI applications among mainstream users across the country. But even a guest speech from Google's chief Sundar Pichai, alongside meta's Zuckerberg, the announcement of Jio's plans to open up until the first half of the following calendar year, failed to thrill investors. On Friday, RIL stock fell 2.2% £1,357 on BSE.
However, the company's AI advancement was largely positive.
“The data center movement is a very necessary thing. In the US, 51 megawatts (MW) have per capita data center capacity, while India only has 1MW capacity. Meanwhile, a large amount of data center capacity is currently surviving. “In this memo, the first part of Reliance's AI mission is the point. The second part is where Reliance already has an unprecedented scale and can integrate AI into services at large scale, and applications, where construction for Indian-specific languages and use cases may be seen in the future,” Kompella said.
Jayanth Kolla, co-founder and partner of technology consulting firm Convergence Catalyst, said Reliance's AI push “is similar to Apple's 'intelligence' push by adding a layer of AI to the service.”
“The key to understanding here is that all global AI companies are focusing on India and building scale. Perplexity, for example, has announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel to build a relationship with the country's Google and Meta. Kolla added.
However, a third senior consultant who called for anonymity due to a conflict of interest said the volume of investments has emerged as part of Reliance Intelligence.
“The data center investment from Reliance is commendable, but most of it could go in-house. However, as far as our partnership with Meta is concerned, Zuckerberg offers AI engineers multiple times the annual salary for Silicon Valley AI engineers, the consultant added.
