Reliance Industries, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and US tech giant NVIDIA have unveiled a groundbreaking partnership aimed at constructing cutting-edge AI supercomputers within India. This pioneering collaboration seeks to establish AI infrastructure of unprecedented power, surpassing the capabilities of India’s current fastest supercomputer.
In a momentous pre-announcement move, Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NVIDIA, which began its Indian operations in 2004, maintains four engineering development hubs across the country, employing over 3,800 professionals in Gurugram, Hyderabad, Pune, and Bengaluru.
The joint venture’s ambitious goal is to develop a large language model tailored for generative AI applications, attuned to India’s diverse linguistic landscape. NVIDIA’s contribution will include access to the highly advanced GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and DGX Cloud, a cloud-based AI supercomputing service known for its exceptional performance and extensive memory bandwidth.
This monumental AI infrastructure isn’t just about technological prowess; it’s set to be the backbone of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Industries’ telecommunications arm. By leveraging AI, Reliance aims to provide AI applications and services for its staggering 450 million Jio customers while also offering energy-efficient AI infrastructure for India’s scientific community, developers, and startups.
The potential applications of this AI infrastructure are wide-ranging. It can facilitate communication for rural farmers through localized weather updates and crop price information. It can enable rapid and accurate medical diagnoses when immediate access to doctors is limited. Moreover, it can bolster disaster management by predicting cyclonic storms using extensive atmospheric data.
The infrastructure will be hosted in AI-ready data centers, slated to expand to a substantial 2,000 MW. Execution and management will be under the purview of Jio, a company with extensive experience in mobile telephony, 5G spectrum, and fiber networks.
NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, highlighting India’s immense scale, data resources, and talent pool. He emphasized the potential to create large language models and generative AI applications catering specifically to India.
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, sees this collaboration as a catalyst for India’s digital progress, akin to Jio’s role in the nation’s digital transformation. His son, Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, envisions this partnership democratizing access to cutting-edge technologies and propelling India towards becoming an AI powerhouse.
As India transitions from data proliferation to a tech infrastructure that fosters accelerated growth, collaborations like this one with NVIDIA are poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the nation’s technological landscape.
PTI
