India's Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday announced new partnerships with Google and Meta to accelerate the company's push into artificial intelligence.

Speaking at an annual shareholders' meeting on Friday, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani also disclosed ambitions to list Reliance Jio, India's largest mobile network, in the first half of 2026.

"A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance — the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger," Ambani said, as he revealed a new fully owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence.

In a pre-recorded video played during the AGM, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Reliance would leverage the internet giant's AI and cloud computing capabilities to boost innovation across sectors like energy, retail, telecommunications and financial services.

The pair will establish a dedicated cloud region in India, powered by clean energy provided by Reliance Industries and connected through Jio's network.

Separately, Ambani also announced a new joint venture with Meta to make use of the tech group's open-source AI models and deliver "sovereign, enterprise-ready AI for India."

Under the new venture, Reliance Industries and Meta have committed an initial investment of $100 million to capitalize the unit in a ratio of 70% and 30% respectively, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership as "a key step forward towards ensuring that everyone has access to AI and eventually super intelligence."

The partnerships signal a deeper push from U.S. tech names into India at a time when the country is seeing significant economic growth. It is not the first time that either Google and Meta has shown an interest in Reliance.

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, which is the parent company of Reliance Jio. Google separately announced a $4.5 billion investment in Jio Platforms that same year.

Jio Platforms owns a number of brands, including its telecommunications business Reliance Jio, which has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks to competitive pricing.

Reliance's deeper pacts with Google and Meta come at a precarious time for U.S.-India relations. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed hefty tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.