NVIDIA reaffirmed its collaboration with Reliance Industries to establish cutting-edge AI infrastructure in India on Thursday, October 24. During the chip giant's AI Summit in Mumbai, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated, “In 2024, we will witness a 20-fold increase in computing capabilities in India.”
Huang made these comments during a discussion with Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. He emphasized, “To excel in artificial intelligence, you need AI model technology and vast amounts of data, which India possesses.”
Recalling his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Huang shared, “He urged me to address his Cabinet on AI and mentioned that India should not export data to import intelligence, just as it should not export flour to import bread. We must add value to our data.” He expressed that NVIDIA's partnership with Reliance would initiate this journey.
Ambani highlighted the importance of Reliance Jio’s infrastructure in positioning India as a global AI center. “We are fortunate to have robust connectivity infrastructure. Today, apart from the US and China, India boasts some of the best digital connectivity, including 4G, 5G, and broadband networks. While we initially did not operate in this space, we have now emerged as the world's largest data company,” he noted, stating that the telecom giant is prepared for a significant expansion of its data centers in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
He also conveyed his “deep respect” for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for contributing to the open-source movement in the realm of intelligence. Additionally, Ambani mentioned utilizing NVIDIA’s enterprise and omni-bus AI tools to train “hundreds of thousands of developers” in India.
What is the Reliance-NVIDIA partnership?
Last month, NVIDIA announced its collaboration with Reliance to create an indigenous foundational large language model (LLM) tailored for Indian languages and customer needs within the country.
The chip manufacturer also revealed plans to co-develop AI infrastructure that would be “more powerful than the fastest supercomputer in India.”
While the specific details of the partnership remain unclear, NVIDIA stated that it will provide Reliance with access to its GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and its AI supercomputing cloud service, DGX Cloud. “The NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure will serve as the cornerstone for Reliance Jio Infocomm—Reliance Industries’ telecom division,” the company noted in a press release.
What does the partnership mean for India?
The collaboration between one of the world’s most valuable AI companies and a leading Indian conglomerate aligns with India’s ambitions to become a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing and AI through public-private partnerships.
By integrating NVIDIA’s GPU technology with Reliance’s extensive infrastructure and market presence, the deployment of AI applications across startups and tech service providers in the country could be significantly accelerated.
Reliance has previously announced plans to host NVIDIA’s GPUs in its data centers, aiming to scale up capacity to over 2,000 megawatts (MW).
In the face of competition from rivals such as AMD and Intel, NVIDIA seeks to enhance its foothold in India’s rapidly growing AI chip market through partnerships with other Indian companies.
At the summit, Huang also disclosed that Tech Mahindra is developing an AI model in Hindi, called Indus 2.0, powered by NVIDIA’s chips and software. Additionally, IT firms like Infosys and Wipro are reportedly utilizing NVIDIA’s software to create custom LLMs for their enterprise clients.
Indian startups such as Flipkart, Zoho, and CoRover.ai are also working on launching Hindi-based LLMs using NVIDIA’s technology.
IIIT-Delhi mentioned leveraging NVIDIA’s microservices to create AMRSense, an AI-powered data integration and predictive analytics tool designed to identify antibiotic prescription patterns in local languages. “India used to be a country that exported software. In the future, India will be a country that exports AI,” Huang declared at the AI Summit.
