Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang Announces Partnership with Reliance to Build AI Infrastructure in India Reliance is building a 1-gigawatt AI infrastructure in Jamnagar, with the potential to scale it to multiple gigawatts, all powered by green energy
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Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven economies are poised to dominate the global landscape in the coming years. India's AI market, currently valued at nearly USD 6.26 billion in 2024, is expected to grow to USD 17 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25-35 per cent, according to BCG and Nasscom.
As AI enterprises and consumer markets grow in India, global tech giants are increasingly looking to invest and collaborate with Indian corporations and the government. During the Nvidia AI Summit 2024, Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, announced a strategic partnership with Reliance Industries to build AI infrastructure in India. The announcement came during a fireside chat between Huang and Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries.
Highlighting the importance of deep tech like AI, Ambani remarked, "We are a new aspirational India." He emphasized that India's demographic advantage, with 1.4 billion people and an average age below 35, is a driving force behind its economic growth. Beyond technology, the aspirations of this youthful population are shaping India's future. He also credited the Indian government's digital policies for turning the country into a leading digital society and accelerating development on the ground.
Ambani pointed out India's rapidly expanding talent pool, stating, "You've trained 200,000 people in AI, but millions more are ready to join this journey." He also highlighted India's growing role as a global hub for research and innovation across industries—space, pharmaceuticals, energy innovation, and chip manufacturing—hinting at Nvidia's future interest in India's semiconductor ecosystem. Currently, 19 per cent of the world's chip designers are based in India, many of whom work for global tech giants.
Ambani noted that India now boasts world-class digital infrastructure, including 4G, 5G, and broadband networks. He highlighted how Jio, Reliance's telecom arm, helped transform India's position in the global digital ecosystem:
"We took India from 158th place in the world to number one in just eight years. Today, Jio is the largest data company in the world, delivering data volumes equivalent to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile combined. This year alone, Jio delivered 16 exabytes of data."
He also emphasized that data costs in India are the lowest globally:
"In the US, data costs about USD 5 per GB; globally, it's around USD 35 per GB. In India, Jio offers data at just 15 cents per GB." According to Ambani, these advancements in technology have provided Indian consumers with value worth USD 500-700 billion annually.
To attract further AI investments, Ambani stressed the importance of infrastructure for processing data. He announced reliance is building a 1-gigawatt AI infrastructure in Jamnagar, with the potential to scale it to multiple gigawatts, all powered by green energy.
Huang reflected on his interactions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sharing an anecdote: "Six years ago, PM Modi invited me to address his cabinet on AI, becoming the first national leader to make such a request. He told me, 'India shouldn't export data to import intelligence. We shouldn't export flour to import bread.' India exported software, and in the future, India will export AI."
At the summit, Nvidia also launched Nemotron-4-Mini-Hindi-4B, a lightweight AI model that supports the Hindi language. Huang highlighted India's dual advantage—its rich talent pool and the world's largest AI consumer market. The model can be deployed on any Nvidia GPU-accelerated system for optimal performance.
Tech Mahindra was announced as the first company to utilize this AI model, developing a new solution called Indus 2.0, which focuses on Hindi and its many dialects, demonstrating India's growing influence in localized AI development.
