Artificial intelligence (AI) will be the driving force behind India’s digital transformation, fuelling innovation, economic growth, and global leadership, said Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia’s AI Summit in Mumbai this month. Addressing an audience of entrepreneurs, developers, academics, and business leaders, Huang positioned AI as the cornerstone of India’s future. His keynote also included a surprise appearance by actor and producer Akshay Kumar. Introducing Mukesh Ambani, Huang described the Reliance Industries Chairman as someone who helped build the fabric of the modern internet in India as we know it.
After Huang’s remarks, the focus shifted to a fireside chat between him and Mukesh Ambani, where they explored AI’s potential to shape Indian industries, particularly in sectors like energy, telecommunications, and manufacturing.
“My version of Nvidia is vidya, which means knowledge in Hindi. Vidya represents Saraswati, our Goddess of knowledge. When you acquire knowledge, the Goddess of Lakshmi (prosperity) follows,” Mukesh Ambani shared with Huang. As we are all determined to create the best LLM (Large Language Models) in Hindi, the word ‘Vidya’ means knowledge in Hindi, he added.
“I knew I named the company right!” Huang responded emphatically.
“India has the best digital connectivity infrastructure—4G, 5G, and broadband—in the world. Jio took India from 158th to number one globally in just eight years. As a single company, we initially knew nothing about this domain, but today we are the largest data company in the world, with volumes equivalent to AT&T Mobile and Verizon combined,” Mukesh said.
“As Jio, we delivered about 16 exabytes of data this year. We will deliver this year. In the US, the average cost is USD 5 per GB, while globally it’s about USD 3.5 per GB. In India, Jio delivers data at just 15 cents per GB,” Mukesh added, explaining this as the reason for his optimism about the opportunity. India will be one of the biggest intelligence markets, he highlighted.
“Indians now will not only export CEOs to the world’s largest companies, but hundreds of millions of Indians will deliver to the world AI services to help a better world, Mukesh added.
“This cannot be done by any one company, any one individual, but we all have to work together to bring this intelligence age safely to the world so that we can create a more equal world, a prosperous world and allow the global south to catch up with the rest of the world,” Ambani said.
Continuing the conversation, Jensen Huang announced that Reliance and Nvidia are partnering to build AI infrastructure in India. Through this partnership, Reliance and Nvidia will establish AI factories to automate industrial tasks and transform sectors like energy and manufacturing.
Huang highlighted that “One of the great advantages that India has is a very large population of users. Now, you have the fundamental ingredients: AI, data, AI infrastructure, and a large population of users that ultimately creates your AI flywheel.”
“It makes complete sense that India should manufacture its own AI,” Huang said. “You should not export data to import intelligence,” he added, noting the importance of India building its own AI infrastructure.
At one point in their conversation, Huang emphasised, “All of my technology is the best technology.”
Nvidia will supply its Blackwell AI processors for a one-gigawatt data center, expandable to multiple gigawatts, that Reliance is constructing in Gujarat as part of building India’s AI infrastructure.
Mukesh Ambani said, “For India and Indians, we need to repeat a Jio for intelligence to make it really affordable and available to the common people.” To achieve this, it’s important that we design and build the infrastructure so our customers don’t have to change their phones or computers to access quality AI, Ambani emphasised.
Ambani also praised Mark Zuckerberg‘s contributions in bringing open-source intelligence to the world, providing everyone the chance to participate in this revolution.
Nvidia also announced its partnership with Indian IT companies like Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro to upskill nearly half a million developers, ensuring India’s leadership in the AI revolution with a highly skilled workforce.
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