Nvidia & Reliance to Build AI Infrastructure for India
Nvidia and Reliance Industries have announced a partnership to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in India, according to statements made by their chief executives during a discussion in Mumbai.
The conversation between Jensen Huang, Chief Executive Officer of Nvidia, and Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, addressed India's opportunity and readiness to become a global hub for artificial intelligence (AI) services.
Huang opened the discussion by highlighting Ambani's contributions to India's technology landscape, saying, "An industry pioneer. Someone, someone we can genuinely said, help digitalize India. And, Yeah, please. And help build the fabric of, of the modern Internet India that we know." He added, "No one has contributed more, Mukesh, to help India become a high tech and a deep tech India. Now you're at the beginning of that journey. You have great aspirations. I know you have deep aspirations to help India become a deep tech industry. And what gives you that conviction? And why is artificial intelligence that moment for India?"
Ambani welcomed Huang to Mumbai and referenced the connection between knowledge and prosperity in Indian tradition. "There is a very important word link which is called Vidya. Vidya. And in Indian, in Hindi, as we are all determined to make the best LLM, in Hindi, right. In Hindi, Vidya means knowledge," Ambani said. He continued, "If we think about Vidya, Vidya is Saraswati, and Saraswati is our goddess of knowledge. So, when you actually devote yourself sincerely to the goddess of knowledge, and you acquire knowledge, then in our tradition, the goddess of prosperity, which is Lakshmi, follows. So, what you are doing?"
Huang responded, "32 years ago, I knew this. And now the story of Nvidia has been revealed. To all of you." Ambani then described the broader impact, stating, "So, our first principle are what you are driving is the knowledge revolution, converting into the international, into what I call the intelligence revolution. And that drives prosperity across the world for all the 8 billion people. And I think that what we are at the doorsteps of is the new intelligence age."
During the discussion, Huang noted the scale and expertise of the Indian IT sector. "As you know, the IT industry of India is world renowned for its very large scale, and not just in size, but in deep expertise of computer science. Very few countries in the world has this natural resource, this amazing natural resource called IT and computer science expertise," he said. Huang also pointed out, "In the last couple of years, we've been working together to upskill and we've now upskilled about 200,000 IT professionals into the world of AI."
Ambani identified several key factors for India's digital progress. "First, as our Prime Minister has said, that this is a new aspirational India. What we have today is we are among the only country in the world where the average age of 1.4 billion Indians is below 35. So, what is driving our economy is not only new technology like AI, but also aspirations. And I believe that, you know, the Prime Minister and I believe that his leadership in terms of converting India to a premier digital society has been vital and continues to drive activity at the ground level. So, it's demography, it's leadership. The third factor is that we as Indians have the raw talent."
He went on to describe India's growing role in research and innovation. "India is fast becoming an innovation hub for the world in terms of where we are and not the manufacturer," Ambani said.
The discussion included reflections on digital infrastructure. Ambani stated, "We also have, what I call the necessary infrastructure. And we've been fortunate that we have the connectivity infrastructure, which is equivalent to the roads. So, if you don't have roads, you will not reach your destination. So, I believe that today, apart from the US and China, India has the best digital connectivity infrastructure, 4G, 5G and broadband in the world." On the company's achievements, Ambani explained, "When people talk about Jio, and, you know, we said Jio took India from No. 158 in the world to No. 1 in the world in eight years. We, as a single company, didn't know anything about this domain. But today, we are the largest data company in the world. Our volumes are equivalent to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon combined."
Ambani highlighted data affordability, stating, "We delivered about 16 Exabytes of data this year. We will deliver this year. And the average in the US, you pay $ 5 a GB, the world average for data is about $ 3.5 a GB and in India Jio delivers data at 15 cents a GB. And what, and what that means is you don't." He continued, "What really that means, Jensen, is a perpetual value that technology has delivered customer value of between $ 500 and $ 700 billion a year, year on year, every year, to Indians. And this is the gift of technology to the people of India. And this is what you described as intelligence we can do to actually bring prosperity to all the people and bring equality to the world."
The executives discussed plans for AI infrastructure in India. Huang stated, "As you know, in order to lead an artificial intelligence, you need to have AI model technology that India has. You need to have data, massive quantities of data. The last thing you need is AI infrastructure. And we're announcing that Reliance and Nvidia are partnering to build AI infrastructure here in India." Ambani affirmed, "Absolutely."
Huang referenced a discussion with India's Prime Minister on AI infrastructure. "He said, makes complete sense that India should manufacture its own AI. Manufacture your own AI. You should not outsource, you should not export data to import intelligence, that India should not export data to import intelligence. And he said, it's like, Modi ji said, India should not just export flour to import bread. We should add value to the data ourselves. And the partnership that we have is to start that journey to build the underlying infrastructure so that India could have your own infrastructure."
On making AI accessible, Ambani added, "For India and Indians, we have to repeat a Jio for intelligence to be really affordable, available to the common people. And towards that, it is important that we design and build infrastructure so that to use AI, our customers don't have to change a phone, don't have to change their computers, but they can still get good quality AI. And we take the burden of putting that infrastructure together, and I think that is what we are counting on, you and us to do."
Ambani also discussed the importance of open source. "By bringing open source to the world of intelligence, he has given everybody the opportunity to participate in this revolution," Ambani said regarding industry developments. He added, "At least from an India point of view, we can use Llama as a base model. It allows all of us to develop on top of a state-of-the-art model. And surely then we can fine-tune, train, retrain, and do everything else. And I am sure that there is somebody in this audience who is very bright and very young, and we will have into the future an Indian model, as you very rightly said, which might be 10X of Llama. And that will happen from India."
The discussion ended with Ambani expressing optimism about India's future in AI, "I can assure you that, like we did in data, in a few years from now, we will surprise the world with what India and Indians can achieve in the intelligence market." Huang added, "This is such an extraordinary time. And, I am honoured and privileged to be partnered with you to do this. And let's make it a promise today that we will work together so that India could take advantage of the intelligence revolution that's ahead of us."
Ambani closed by wishing Huang a prosperous new year in advance of Diwali, stating, "You are here only a few days before Diwali. Diwali is our new year. It is where we worship the goddess of prosperity. So, on behalf of all of us, we wish you. A very, very prosperous new year. And to all of you, a happy Diwali and a Happy Happy Diwali, everyone."
