Reliance, Adani drive India’s AI push with plans to invest $210 billion

BENGALURU: India’s biggest conglomerates are stepping up a push into AI and data infrastructure, with Reliance committing about $110 billion and Adani pledging $100 billion to position the nation as an emerging hub for AI development.

While the sum is modest against the more than $630 billion U.S. tech giants are expected to spend this year, India is offering tax breaks for foreign firms operating from domestic data centres, along with measures to lure more AI talent.

“Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity,” said billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance, arguing that cheaper computing will spur innovation.

His company wants to bring to AI the same playbook it used to disrupt the telecom market in 2016 by slashing data prices and expanding access.

READ MORE: US tech giants announce India deals at AI summit

News of the plans come as top executives gathered in New Delhi for a major summit, amid rising investment from Google, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft in India’s AI and cloud ecosystem.

Reliance and Adani benefit from renewable-powered data centres, as their own energy assets cut reliance on costly grid power. Putting facilities next to power plants cuts transmission losses and shields them from rising electricity prices.

“With their backward integration, renewable-powered data centres are simply the cheapest option for them in the long run,” said Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst.

Betting on data centres

India has played only a limited role in the global AI boom so far, as it lacks large-scale chip manufacturing, making data centres its most viable entry point into the fast-growing infrastructure market.

READ MORE: Adani bets $100 billion on data centres to power India’s AI ambitions

Reliance unit Jio is developing multi-gigawatt, AI-ready data centres, including a facility in the western city of Jamnagar that is expected to add more than 120 megawatts of capacity in the second half of this year.

Separately, Adani Enterprises said on Tuesday it planned to invest $100 billion by 2035 to build data centres that are AI-enabled and renewable-powered.

Reliance seeks to build a fully integrated AI stack in India, but execution and monetisation remain key risks, said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer at Fident Asset Management.