“India cannot rent intelligence.” — Mukesh Ambani, India AI Impact Summit 2026
On February 19, 2026, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani made one of the most consequential announcements in Indian corporate history at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms will together invest ₹10 lakh crore (~$110 billion) over the next seven years to build India’s AI infrastructure — covering data centres, green energy, edge computing, and a multilingual AI platform serving every Indian.
Ambani described it as “patient, disciplined, nation-building capital” — not speculative, but designed to create durable strategic resilience. The announcement positions India alongside the world’s most ambitious AI infrastructure builders and frames the effort as a matter of national sovereignty: just as India built its own telecom backbone through Jio, it must now build its own intelligence backbone.
📜 The Announcement: What Was Said at Bharat Mandapam
Addressing the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Ambani declared that Jio, together with Reliance, would invest ₹10 lakh crore over seven years starting 2026. He was unambiguous: the capital is “patient, disciplined, nation-building” — not speculative, not focused on valuations, but designed for “durable economic value and strategic resilience for decades.”
In dollar terms, ₹10 lakh crore equals approximately $110 billion — placing this pledge among the largest technology infrastructure commitments anywhere in the world. The announcement was made at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, alongside pledges from Google ($15 billion), Amazon, Microsoft ($50 billion combined), and Anthropic (partnership with Infosys).
Think of India’s AI ambition like building a railway network. Ambani’s ₹10 lakh crore plan lays the tracks (data centres), powers the engines (green energy), extends lines to every village (edge computing), and builds a train everyone can board in their own language (Jio AI Bharat). Without this domestic infrastructure, India would forever rent seats on foreign trains.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Investor | Reliance Industries Ltd + Jio Platforms Ltd |
| Investment Amount | ₹10 lakh crore (~$110 billion) |
| Time Period | 7 years, starting 2026 |
| Summit Venue | Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi |
| Data Centre Location | Jamnagar, Gujarat |
| First Capacity Online | 120 MW+ by H2 2026 |
| Green Energy Source | Solar — Kutch (Gujarat) & Andhra Pradesh |
| Green Energy Capacity | Up to 10 Gigawatts |
| Platform Launched | Jio AI Bharat (multilingual AI) |
✨ Three-Part Strategy: What ₹10 Lakh Crore Actually Builds
Pillar 1 — Gigawatt-Scale AI Data Centres at Jamnagar: Reliance is building multi-gigawatt AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar, Gujarat — already the site of its massive refinery and petrochemical complex. Over 120 MW of AI-ready capacity is targeted to come online in H2 2026. The strategic advantage of Jamnagar is significant: existing land, power infrastructure, and logistics allow rapid scaling at lower cost than greenfield sites.
Pillar 2 — 10 Gigawatts of Green Energy: AI data centres are enormously energy-intensive. Reliance plans to deploy up to 10 GW of surplus green power — primarily solar from Kutch, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh — to run its AI infrastructure. This dual benefit of low operating cost and environmental responsibility distinguishes India’s AI buildout from many global counterparts that rely heavily on fossil-fuel-powered grids.
Pillar 3 — Nationwide Edge Computing Network: The most transformative pillar for ordinary Indians. A distributed computing network integrated into Jio’s existing telecom infrastructure will bring AI processing close to the user — whether a farmer in Vidarbha or a student in a Northeastern village. “From kirana stores to clinics, from classrooms to farms — intelligence will live at the edge,” Ambani said.
Most global AI infrastructure is urban-centric and cloud-dependent. India’s edge computing network inverts this model — bringing AI processing to where rural India actually lives. If successful, this could be the most significant digital inclusion effort since Jio’s 2016 mobile data revolution.
Don’t confuse locations: The AI data centres are at Jamnagar, Gujarat. The solar power sourcing is from Kutch, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. These are different locations. Also note: the summit was at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi — not in Gujarat.
🌍 Jio AI Bharat: The Multilingual AI Platform
Alongside the infrastructure pledges, Ambani unveiled Jio AI Bharat — a multilingual AI platform designed to operate across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. This directly addresses the biggest limitation of global AI tools like ChatGPT: they work best in English, structurally disadvantaging hundreds of millions of Indian language speakers.
Reliance has already begun deploying several AI applications under this umbrella, all targeted at specific high-impact sectors of the Indian economy:
- JioShikshak — Adaptive learning platform in 22 languages
- JioArogyAI — Rapid medical guidance system
- JioKrishi — Agricultural AI for India’s 140 million farmers
- JioBharatIQ — Voice-first AI assistant for education, employment, and government services
Four Jio AI Apps: Remember “SAKB” — Shikshak (education), ArogyAI (health), Krishi (agriculture / 140 million farmers), BharatIQ (voice assistant). These are already in deployment, not future promises.
📖 The Jio Parallel: “We Did It With Data. Now With Intelligence.”
Ambani drew an explicit and powerful parallel to Jio’s 2016 telecom disruption. When Jio launched, mobile data cost ₹250 per gigabyte. Within 18 months, Jio drove the price to near zero — making India the world’s largest mobile data consumer and connecting hundreds of millions of previously unconnected Indians.
“India cannot afford to rent intelligence,” Ambani stated. “Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did in the case of data.” The constraint Ambani identified is not talent — India already leads global AI talent acquisition with approximately 33% annual hiring growth (Stanford AI Index 2025) — but access to affordable computing power. The ₹10 lakh crore plan is designed to eliminate that bottleneck.
The sovereign AI argument is powerful: a country that relies entirely on foreign AI infrastructure is strategically vulnerable — analogous to a country that cannot produce its own food or energy. However, if Jio dominates India’s AI infrastructure the way it dominates telecom, what are the risks of private monopoly over national intelligence infrastructure? This tension between sovereignty and concentration is an important GDPI theme.
⚖️ Five Non-Negotiable Principles of Jio Intelligence
Ambani articulated five governing principles for how Jio Intelligence will deploy AI, which he explicitly described as “non-negotiable”:
- AI for deep tech, advanced manufacturing, and the informal sector — not just large enterprises. Agriculture, MSMEs, and India’s 490 million informal workers are the stated priority.
- World-leading multilingual AI — no Indian should be excluded because of the language they speak.
- Responsibility, security, and data residency — Indian data must stay in India; AI systems must remain accountable.
- Creating high-skill employment — Ambani explicitly stated “AI will not take jobs; it will create jobs and high-skilled work opportunities.”
- Building a robust AI ecosystem — through partnerships with Indian enterprises, startups, IITs, IISc, and global technology companies.
🌍 Geopolitical and Investment Context
Ambani’s announcement was one of several major AI investment pledges at and around the India AI Impact Summit 2026, signalling a significant global capital shift toward India:
- Google (Sundar Pichai) — $15 billion AI investment in India
- Amazon + Microsoft — combined $50 billion pledged to India’s AI ecosystem
- Blackstone — $600 million in Indian AI infrastructure startup Neysa
- Anthropic — partnered with Infosys to build AI agents; opened Bengaluru office
Ambani’s ₹10 lakh crore positions Reliance-Jio as the domestic counterpart to these foreign investments — ensuring India builds its own AI backbone rather than becoming entirely dependent on foreign infrastructure. The combination of compute (data centres), energy (green power), distribution (edge network), and applications (Jio AI Bharat) means Reliance is attempting to own the entire AI stack — a vertical integration comparable to building India’s NVIDIA and AWS simultaneously.
📌 Economic Implications for India
The macroeconomic potential of this investment is substantial across several sectors. In agriculture, JioKrishi serving 140 million farmers with precision AI tools could meaningfully improve yields and rural incomes — a transformative outcome if even partially realised. In healthcare, JioArogyAI could address one of India’s most persistent failures: the absence of quality medical guidance in remote areas.
For manufacturing and MSMEs, affordable AI access aligns directly with India’s Make in India and PLI scheme ambitions — AI-driven productivity improvements could be decisive in competing with global manufacturing hubs. The nationwide edge network also implies employment across every district where Jio operates, from engineers to operations and maintenance staff.
The Sovereign AI Argument: “India cannot rent intelligence” — this phrase encapsulates why domestic AI infrastructure matters. Nations depending on foreign AI platforms risk strategic vulnerability comparable to importing all their food or energy. This is Ambani’s central justification for the scale of the investment.
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Mukesh Ambani announced the ₹10 lakh crore AI investment on February 19, 2026 at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms plan to build multi-gigawatt AI data centres at Jamnagar, Gujarat. Jamnagar is already home to Reliance’s massive refinery complex, enabling rapid scaling at lower cost.
The green energy plan involves up to 10 Gigawatts of solar power from Kutch (Gujarat) and Andhra Pradesh. The 120 MW is only the first phase coming online in H2 2026. 10 GW is the long-term target.
JioKrishi is Reliance’s agricultural AI tool designed specifically to serve India’s 140 million farmers. JioShikshak covers education (22 languages), JioArogyAI covers health, and JioBharatIQ is a general voice AI assistant.
In dollar terms, ₹10 lakh crore is approximately $110 billion, placing this pledge among the largest technology infrastructure commitments in the world. $15 billion is Google’s pledge; $50 billion is Amazon and Microsoft’s combined pledge.
