Reliance may invest USD 12–15 billion in AI infrastructure, including 1GW data centre: Morgan Stanley
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to invest between USD 12 billion and USD 15 billion over the next few years to build advanced AI infrastructure, which could include a massive 1GW data centre, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.
At the company’s annual general meeting in August, Ambani had unveiled plans to make a major push into artificial intelligence through a new subsidiary and strategic global partnerships. The newly formed wholly owned unit, Reliance Intelligence, will drive the conglomerate’s AI ambitions across four key pillars:
- Infrastructure: Building gigawatt-scale, AI-ready data centres.
- Partnerships: Collaborating with global tech giants to bring cutting-edge AI technologies to India.
- Services: Creating AI-powered solutions for Indian consumers, small businesses, and sectors such as education, healthcare, and agriculture.
- Talent: Investing in AI skill development and workforce training across the country.
“Reliance has consistently reinvented itself every decade, and AI will define the next phase of its growth story,” Morgan Stanley said. The report added that the company’s generative AI initiatives would unlock synergies across its energy, digital, consumer, and media businesses.
The brokerage estimated that Reliance will allocate around USD 12–15 billion toward AI infrastructure, including USD 7 billion for the data centre and USD 5 billion for 250MW worth of chips it plans to deploy directly. The rest of the 1GW capacity is expected to be leased to hyperscalers and large language model (LLM) developers under a ‘Datacenter as a Service’ model.
The first phase of the data centre project is already underway in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with an initial capacity of 100MW expected to scale over the next two years. Reliance plans to use this capacity to cater to enterprise AI demand and sovereign AI initiatives.
The report also noted that Reliance’s partnerships with Meta, Google, and Microsoft Azure will be instrumental in this effort. On Saturday, Reliance announced a new AI joint venture with Meta’s subsidiary Facebook Overseas, Inc., named Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Ltd (REIL). The venture, backed by an initial investment of Rs 855 crore, will see Reliance Intelligence hold a 70% stake and Facebook Overseas 30%.
REIL aims to integrate Meta’s open-source Llama AI models with Reliance’s vast enterprise network to deliver AI solutions for Indian businesses.
Additionally, Reliance is teaming up with Google to establish a dedicated cloud region in Jamnagar, merging Reliance’s infrastructure strength with Google’s AI and cloud capabilities.
Morgan Stanley projects a return on capital employed (ROCE) of around 11% from these AI investments and anticipates annual revenues of USD 1.5–1.6 million per MW from the ‘Datacenter as a Service’ business.
Given that data centres are major energy consumers, the report added that Reliance could also support over 20GW of internal power demand, bolstering its 100GW solar capacity and 30–40GWh battery capacity targets.
