Reliance Industries, India’s largest company by market capitalization, is not ignoring the AI frenzy that has gripped the tech world.
At the company’s 47th annual general meeting on Thursday, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani and other executives mentioned AI nearly three dozen times within two hours, detailing plans to integrate the technology across the company’s various businesses, including telecommunications, retail and energy.
Reliance also said it is planning to set up large-scale, AI-ready data centers in Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat, that will be powered by the company’s green energy resources. Ambani claimed these facilities would enable lower AI inferencing costs in India, potentially making AI applications more affordable. However, the company was short on details about the feasibility of its plans and the timeline for achieving these goals.
Reliance’s telecom arm, Jio, is developing a “comprehensive” AI suite called “Jio Brain” to accelerate AI adoption across its operations and other Reliance companies. The firm is partnering with Jio Institute to develop an AI program aimed at cultivating AI talent in India.
Reliance plans to offer Jio users up to 100 GB of free cloud storage through its Jio AI Cloud service, set to launch around Diwali in October, Ambani said. During the presentation, the company also showed off JioPhoneCall AI, a call recording and transcription service, and introduced Jio TvOS, an operating system for its set-top boxes that will feature an AI voice assistant.
India has lagged other countries in the AI race, but the last year has seen a flurry of activity from conglomerates like Reliance and Tata Group (both of which have partnered with Nvidia) and from startups pushing to develop AI apps and infrastructure.
Notably, the firm did not say anything about the much-anticipated IPOs of Jio and its retail arm, Reliance Retail. Both subsidiaries are at the top of their respective sectors in the country.
“As 5 years ago, RIL chairman had mentioned that they will IPO telco and retail within 5 years, the market is expecting an update on this,” Bank of America analysts said.
Ambani said the company expects Jio and Retail to double their revenue and EBITDA in the next three to four years. Brokerage firm Jefferies said last month that Reliance could list Jio next year at a valuation north of $110 billion.
Jio raised about $20 billion in 2020 from investors, including Meta, Google, Mubadala, ADIA, and KKR. The funding valued the telecom operator at $65 billion. Reliance Retail, which also raised $7 billion in 2020 from external investors, raised about $1.85 billion last year at a valuation of $100 billion.
