OpenAI and Meta in Talks with Reliance Industries for AI Partnerships in India

OpenAI, Meta in talks with Reliance for AI partnerships, The Information reports

March 22 (Reuters) - OpenAI and Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab have held separate discussions with India's Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), opens new tab over potential partnerships to expand their artificial intelligence offerings in the country, technology news website The Information reported on Saturday. A possibility being discussed involved a relationship between Reliance Jio and OpenAI to distribute ChatGPT, according to The Information, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI also discussed with employees cutting the ChatGPT subscription price to as low as several dollars instead of $20 a month, according to the report, which added that it is not clear if OpenAI has discussed the idea of price reduction with Reliance. Reliance has discussed selling OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an application programming interface or API, The Information report added, saying that the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate also discussed hosting and running OpenAI models locally, so the data of local customers can be kept within India. In particular, Reliance has discussed running the Meta and OpenAI models in a three-gigawatt data center that the company is planning to build, which it has said is the largest data center in the world, located in the city of Jamnagar in Gujarat. Meta declined to comment on The Information report. OpenAI and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. Reliance Industries is one of the largest conglomerates in India, engaged in petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration, telecommunications, retail and green energy. Reporting by Bipasha Dey and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Will Dunham Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial IntelligenceRefining

Why are OpenAI and Meta Trying to Woo Reliance?

With a subscriber base exceeding 465.13 million as of 2025, Jio provides a suitable platform to distribute AI tools like ChatGPT to a price-sensitive yet digitally curious population. OpenAI is in talks with Reliance Industries about a potential partnership to integrate ChatGPT and other AI tools into the latter's businesses, The Information reported. The Sam Altman-led company is seeking to leverage Reliance's businesses, such as wireless carrier Jio, to distribute or sell its AI services, possibly including ChatGPT. As per the report, OpenAI has considered reducing ChatGPT's subscription price in India by as much as 85% to attract more paid users. Currently priced at $20 per month, the subscription is costly relative to India's median salary. A potential partnership with Jio, Reliance's telecom subsidiary, could allow ChatGPT to be bundled into mobile plans at a lower rate. Reliance has also explored selling OpenAI's enterprise AI tools to Indian businesses through an API. However, Microsoft, OpenAI's key partner, holds exclusive rights to resell these models to businesses, potentially necessitating its involvement in any such agreement. "Reliance is a natural ally for OpenAI in India -- not merely due to its scale, but also because of its deep entrenchment across both the consumer and enterprise landscapes," Sanchit Vir, CEO of Greyhound Research, told AIM. He added that Reliance provides OpenAI with a ready-made gateway to hyperlocal scale and access to India's AI-hungry middle-class and enterprise sector. "Reliance has its fingers in every crucial sector -- telecom, retail, cloud, media, and government services." He further explained that working with Reliance will help OpenAI navigate regulatory challenges easily. "Navigating India's regulatory landscape isn't for the faint-hearted. Reliance operates a well-oiled machinery when it comes to government relations and digital infrastructure agreements. If OpenAI aspires to scale significantly in India -- educational institutions, healthcare, rural empowerment, even governance -- Reliance opens doors that no Valley company can," he said. OpenAI is not alone in this pursuit. Meta is also vying for a partnership with Reliance to integrate its Llama open-source model and Meta AI chatbot into Reliance's digital services. However, OpenAI currently leads in Indian AI adoption, with ChatGPT attracting significantly more traffic than Meta's AI tools, according to research firm Similarweb. Meanwhile, on a global scale, Llama recently surpassed 1 billion downloads -- a sharp rise from 650 million in December 2024, marking a 153% surge in just three months. This, however, won't be Meta's first collaboration with Reliance. In 2020, the company invested $5.7 billion (INR 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, making Facebook its largest minority shareholder. A good adoption in India hinges on both usability and affordability. The implications of high costs and premium pricing models for advanced tools are significant in a price-sensitive country like India. India is OpenAI's second-largest market, but to expand its reach, the company must refine its pricing strategy. For instance, the company now offers ChatGPT Pro at $200/month and is rumoured to introduce plans up to $2,000/month due to high compute costs of advanced models, which is prohibitively expensive for many Indian users. Many users have previously pointed out to Altman on X that, in the current scenario, $200 per month is comparable to salaries and average monthly incomes in many economies outside the US -- suggesting that AI subscription pricing cannot be uniform globally. In India, for instance, the average monthly income is around ₹20,000 (about $233). Meanwhile, DeepSeek is slowly changing the game for everyone, forcing AI labs to introduce cheap and open-source alternatives or at least rethink their strategies. "The biggest revelation from DeepSeek is that open source has won. With only a 1% difference in performance, it will be difficult for OpenAI to justify its pricing when the competition is both free and formidable," said Kai-Fu Lee, founder of AI startup 01.AI, in a recent interview with Bloomberg. He added that the company is also going to last infinitely because its founder has enough money to fund it at the current level and has reduced computing costs by a factor of 5 to 10. "With such a formidable competitor, I think Sam Altman is probably not sleeping well," he quipped. In addition to AI distribution, Reliance is developing a massive data centre in Jamnagar and has discussed offering data hosting services to OpenAI and Meta. With a capacity of 3 gigawatts, the facility could provide the infrastructure needed to run AI models locally, addressing concerns about data sovereignty. Meanwhile, reports indicate that OpenAI may be building its own data centre in India. Indian government officials are contemplating mandating that foreign AI companies store Indian user data within the country, a decision that could enhance Reliance's position in AI hosting. "In our estimation at Jio, I think AI is the biggest technology change that we have seen in our lifetime till date," said Jio chairman Akash Ambani, adding that AI will empower India to grow at 10% or double-digit growth numbers for the foreseeable future. He added that Reliance has already invested in its full-stack AI team, led by data scientists, researchers, and engineers, expanding it to over a thousand members. "We will have a groundbreaking idea that will bring half a billion people [together] on one platform coming out of India, and that's what will take us to [global] AI leadership," Ambani said at Mumbai Tech Week 2025. Last year, Reliance Industries unveiled consumer-focused AI initiatives, including Jio Brain, Jio AI-Cloud, and Jio Phone Call AI, along with its vision for a national AI infrastructure -- challenging global cloud giants and transforming India's AI ecosystem. Reliance also has a history of investments in AI firms. In 2019, Reliance Jio acquired an 87% stake in Haptik, an AI-based conversational platform and virtual assistant developer, for approximately ₹700 crore. Besides, Reliance invested up to $180 million in Embibe to acquire a majority stake. Embibe is an AI-powered education platform. Reliance wants to replicate what it did in the telecom industry -- transforming the Indian digital economy by offering affordable data and connectivity, bringing millions online, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Patna, Jaipur, Surat, and Bhopal. With a subscriber base exceeding 465.13 million as of 2025, Jio provides a suitable platform to distribute AI tools like ChatGPT to a price-sensitive yet digitally curious population. "Reliance has a proven record of using its scale to democratise technology. Jio's disruptive rollout of 4G in 2016 reshaped India's telecom market by drastically reducing mobile data prices, making India the world's cheapest data market. A similar approach could be applied to AI. "By bundling ChatGPT with Jio data plans or hosting it on its upcoming local data infrastructure, Reliance could significantly lower the cost of AI access," said Karn Chauhan, senior analyst at Counterpoint. He added that none of the operators we have can think of a global promise to build, offer, and control what Jio is capable of and AI will play a key role in shaping next-gen consumer experiences, especially with the richness of data involved. Currently, Reliance Jio leads the wireless services market with a 40.42% share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 33.49%. Jio's infrastructure and low-cost data plans will ensure that OpenAI's AI solutions can reach even remote areas. The enormous data generated by Jio's vast user base covering browsing habits, app usage, and location presents an opportunity for OpenAI to build AI models that offer personalised digital assistants or educational tools adapted to regional languages and needs.

Jio ChatGPT!

With a subscriber base exceeding 465.13 million as of 2025, Jio provides a suitable platform to distribute AI tools like ChatGPT to a price-sensitive yet digitally curious population. OpenAI is in talks with Reliance Industries about a potential partnership to integrate ChatGPT and other AI tools into the latter's businesses, The Information reported. The Sam Altman-led company is seeking to leverage Reliance's businesses, such as wireless carrier Jio, to distribute or sell its AI services, possibly including ChatGPT. As per the report, OpenAI has considered reducing ChatGPT's subscription price in India by as much as 85% to attract more paid users. Currently priced at $20 per month, the subscription is costly relative to India's median salary. A potential partnership with Jio, Reliance's telecom subsidiary, could allow ChatGPT to be bundled into mobile plans at a lower rate. Reliance has also explored selling OpenAI's enterprise AI tools to Indian businesses through an API. However, Microsoft, OpenAI's key partner, holds exclusive rights to resell these models to businesses, potentially necessitating its involvement in any such agreement. "Reliance is a natural ally for OpenAI in India -- not merely due to its scale, but also because of its deep entrenchment across both the consumer and enterprise landscapes," Sanchit Vir, CEO of Greyhound Research, told AIM. He added that Reliance provides OpenAI with a ready-made gateway to hyperlocal scale and access to India's AI-hungry middle-class and enterprise sector. "Reliance has its fingers in every crucial sector -- telecom, retail, cloud, media, and government services." He further explained that working with Reliance will help OpenAI navigate regulatory challenges easily. "Navigating India's regulatory landscape isn't for the faint-hearted. Reliance operates a well-oiled machinery when it comes to government relations and digital infrastructure agreements. If OpenAI aspires to scale significantly in India -- educational institutions, healthcare, rural empowerment, even governance -- Reliance opens doors that no Valley company can," he said. OpenAI is not alone in this pursuit. Meta is also vying for a partnership with Reliance to integrate its Llama open-source model and Meta AI chatbot into Reliance's digital services. However, OpenAI currently leads in Indian AI adoption, with ChatGPT attracting significantly more traffic than Meta's AI tools, according to research firm Similarweb. Meanwhile, on a global scale, Llama recently surpassed 1 billion downloads -- a sharp rise from 650 million in December 2024, marking a 153% surge in just three months. This, however, won't be Meta's first collaboration with Reliance. In 2020, the company invested $5.7 billion (INR 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, becoming Facebook's largest minority shareholder. A good adoption in India hinges on both usability and affordability. The implications of high costs and premium pricing models for advanced tools are significant in a price-sensitive country like India. India is OpenAI's second-largest market, but to expand its reach, the company must refine its pricing strategy. For instance, the company now offers ChatGPT Pro at $200/month and is rumoured to introduce plans up to $2,000/month due to high compute costs of advanced models, which is prohibitively expensive for many Indian users. Many users have previously pointed out to Altman on X that, in the current scenario, $200 per month is comparable to salaries and average monthly incomes in many economies outside the US -- suggesting that AI subscription pricing cannot be uniform globally. In India, for instance, the average monthly income is around ₹20,000 (about $233). Meanwhile, DeepSeek is slowly changing the game for everyone, forcing AI labs to introduce cheap and open-source alternatives or at least rethink their strategies. "The biggest revelation from DeepSeek is that open source has won. With only a 1% difference in performance, it will be difficult for OpenAI to justify its pricing when the competition is both free and formidable," said Kai-Fu Lee, founder of AI startup 01.AI, in a recent interview with Bloomberg. He added that the company is also going to last infinitely because its founder has enough money to fund it at the current level and has reduced computing costs by a factor of 5 to 10. "With such a formidable competitor, I think Sam Altman is probably not sleeping well," he quipped. In addition to AI distribution, Reliance is developing a massive data centre in Jamnagar and has discussed offering data hosting services to OpenAI and Meta. With a capacity of 3 gigawatts, the facility could provide the infrastructure needed to run AI models locally, addressing concerns about data sovereignty. Meanwhile, reports indicate that OpenAI may be building its own data centre in India. Indian government officials are contemplating mandating that foreign AI companies store Indian user data within the country, a decision that could enhance Reliance's position in AI hosting. "In our estimation at Jio, I think AI is the biggest technology change that we have seen in our lifetime till date," said Jio chairman Akash Ambani, adding that AI will empower India to grow at 10% or double-digit growth numbers for the foreseeable future. He added that Reliance has already invested in its full-stack AI team, led by data scientists, researchers, and engineers, expanding it to over a thousand members. "We will have a groundbreaking idea that will bring half a billion people [together] on one platform coming out of India, and that's what will take us to [global] AI leadership," Ambani said at Mumbai Tech Week 2025. Last year, Reliance Industries unveiled consumer-focused AI initiatives, including Jio Brain, Jio AI-Cloud, and Jio Phone Call AI, along with its vision for a national AI infrastructure -- challenging global cloud giants and transforming India's AI ecosystem. Reliance also has a history of investments in AI firms. In 2019, Reliance Jio acquired an 87% stake in Haptik, an AI-based conversational platform and virtual assistant developer, for approximately ₹700 crore. Besides, Reliance invested up to $180 million in Embibe to acquire a majority stake. Embibe is an AI-powered education platform. Reliance wants to replicate what it did in the telecom industry -- transforming the Indian digital economy by offering affordable data and connectivity, bringing millions online, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Patna, Jaipur, Surat, and Bhopal. With a subscriber base exceeding 465.13 million as of 2025, Jio provides a suitable platform to distribute AI tools like ChatGPT to a price-sensitive yet digitally curious population. "Reliance has a proven record of using its scale to democratise technology. Jio's disruptive rollout of 4G in 2016 reshaped India's telecom market by drastically reducing mobile data prices, making India the world's cheapest data market. A similar approach could be applied to AI. "By bundling ChatGPT with Jio data plans or hosting it on its upcoming local data infrastructure, Reliance could significantly lower the cost of AI access," said Karn Chauhan, senior analyst at Counterpoint. He added that none of the operators we have can think of a global promise to build, offer, and control what Jio is capable of and AI will play a key role in shaping next-gen consumer experiences, especially with the richness of data involved. Currently, Reliance Jio leads the wireless services market with a 40.42% share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 33.49%. Jio's infrastructure and low-cost data plans will ensure that OpenAI's AI solutions can reach even remote areas. The enormous data generated by Jio's vast user base covering browsing habits, app usage, and location presents an opportunity for OpenAI to build AI models that offer personalised digital assistants or educational tools adapted to regional languages and needs.

OpenAI and Meta Might Join Hands With Reliance Industries for AI

Reliance is said to planning to build a three-gigawatt data center OpenAI and Meta are reportedly discussing an artificial intelligence (AI) partnership with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. As per the report, the San Francisco-based AI firm and the Menlo Park-based social media giant are aiming to expand their AI footprint in the country by using the Mukesh Ambani-led company's large consumer and enterprise-focused base. The ChatGPT-maker is reportedly discussing the distribution of the AI platform via Reliance Jio, whereas Reliance is discussing the possibility to Run Llama models locally via Meta. According to The Information, both OpenAI and Meta have held separate discussions with Reliance Industries recently. Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the publication claimed that the discussion was focused on expanding its AI offerings in the country. One particular collaboration that is reportedly being discussed is between Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of the conglomerate and OpenAI. The AI firm is said to be considering distributing ChatGPT via the telecom operator. While details are unavailable, this deal could see Jio offer ChatGPT Plus subscriptions to its users at discounted rates. The AI firm has reportedly also internally discussed cutting down its subscription prices by as much as "several dollars." This is said to only affect the Plus subscription that costs Rs. 1,950 in the country, and not its Pro or Team subscriptions. The publication said it was unclear if the idea of dropping the subscription price was discussed with Reliance. Reliance is said to have discussed the possibility of selling OpenAI models to its enterprise clients via an application programming interface (API). The Ambani-led conglomerate reportedly wants to host and run these AI models locally so that the data of the local customers remains within India. Further, the report claimed that Reliance has held talks about running OpenAI and Meta's AI models in its planned three-gigawatt data centre in Gujarat's Jamnagar. Once built, it will reportedly become the world's largest data centre, in terms of capacity. Notably, Jio Platforms Limited (JPL), AMD, Cisco, and Nokia, collectively revealed a new initiative dubbed the Open Telecom AI Platform at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025. The initiative will be co-developing and co-commercialising real-world AI solutions in the telecom space.

OpenAI, Meta in Talks with Reliance for AI Expansion in India: Report

Reliance aims to sell OpenAI's AI models to enterprises via APIs while ensuring data sovereignty. OpenAI and Meta Platforms have held separate discussions with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for potential AI partnerships in India, according to a report by The Information. Bloomberg and Reuters also reported the story. Earlier reports indicate that Reliance is working closely with Nvidia to democratise AI in India, as it did with high-speed data. Also Read: The Internet or Just Cached Data: What Are Users Actually Using? OpenAI executives have engaged in multiple discussions with their counterparts at Reliance in recent months regarding a potential product and sales partnership, the report said, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the talks. A key possibility involves Reliance Jio distributing OpenAI's ChatGPT, expanding its reach in the country. According to the report, OpenAI has also explored reducing ChatGPT's subscription fee from USD 20 to just a few dollars, though it remains unclear if this has been discussed with Reliance. Also Read: Jio Platforms Working with Nvidia to Democratise AI in India: Report Additionally, Reliance has discussed selling OpenAI's AI models to enterprise clients via an API and hosting these models locally to ensure data remains within India. The conglomerate is also in talks with both OpenAI and Meta about running their AI models in its 3GW data center under development in Jamnagar, Gujarat, which it claims will be the world's largest. TelecomTalk previously reported on this AI center developments. Also Read: Breaking: Reliance Jio Starts Offering 50GB JioAICloud Storage with Prepaid and Postpaid Plans Just yesterday, TelecomTalk reported that Reliance Jio is offering 50GB of AI Cloud storage, despite previously stating that it would provide up to 100GB. This AI cloud storage offering offer applies to prepaid plans of Rs 299 and above, as well as all postpaid plans. Read more in the story linked above.

OpenAI, Meta In Talks With Reliance For AI Partnerships: Report

The talks also saw Reliance, which also offers cloud, considering a proposal to sell OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an API Artificial intelligence (AI) giant OpenAI and social media major Meta are reportedly looking to strike partnership with Indian conglomerate Reliance on new AI businesses. Sources told The Information that OpenAI executives have been holding talks with their Reliance counterparts in recent months for a potential product and sales partnership. As per the report, the Sam Altman-led company seeks to partner with Reliance's telecom arm Jio to distribute or sell its AI offerings, including ChatGPT. The talks reportedly saw Reliance, which also offers cloud, considering a proposal to sell OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an application programming interface (API). However, the deal may see the involvement of Microsoft, which has the exclusive rights to resell OpenAI models to businesses through an API. Meanwhile, a source also reportedly said that Meta Platforms has its own "ambitions" to work with Reliance on new AI businesses, without specifying what kind of AI-related product partnerships Meta had discussed with Reliance. According to the report, top OpenAI executives internally told employees the company was looking at reducing the price of premium subscription of ChatGPT for Indian users to as low as "several dollars" instead of the current $20 per month. It was not clear if OpenAI discussed the price reduction idea with Reliance. Sources also reportedly said that Reliance, which is developing one of the biggest data centers in Gujarat's Jamnagar, has discussed the possibility of selling the data center capacity to OpenAI and Meta. Reliance is also said to have deliberated on running OpenAI and Meta large language models (LLM) at a potential 3 gigawatt (GW) data centre in the city. Not just this, Reliance also reportedly discussed hosting and running OpenAI models locally so that the homegrown conglomerate can keep Indian customers' data within the country's borders. This follows Reliance executives reportedly holding talks with government officials on data localisation mandates, which make it compulsory foreign AI companies to store the data of Indians locally, for security and privacy reasons. The partnership with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) could help both OpenAI and Meta leverage the conglomerate's distribution ecosystem to offer their service to a bigger chunk of Indian users. The move will also help the Sam Altman-led company achieve 1 Bn daily active users by the end of this year. Despite being home to one of the biggest markets globally for OpenAI, the price-sensitive Indian market contributes very little to the company's top line. While it would be interesting to see if the deals materialise, homegrown startups continue to push the envelope with their affordable and India-centric offerings. Be it SarvamAI or Krutrim, Indian AI startups have raised millions of dollars to build Indic LLMs and other AI offerings. Additionally, the union government has also pushed the pedal on fostering a vibrant AI startup ecosystem in the country with the INR 10,300 Cr IndiaAI Mission and other incentives. Earlier this year, the Centre floated a proposal to develop an indigenously-built AI foundational model. As a result, 67 startups including SarvamAI, CoRover.ai and Ola's Krutrim submitted applications for building the LLMs.

OpenAI, Meta in talks with Reliance for AI partnerships, The...

OpenAI and Meta Platforms have held separate discussions with India's Reliance Industries over potential partnerships to expand their artificial intelligence offerings in the country, technology news website The Information reported on Saturday. A possibility being discussed involved a relationship between Reliance Jio and OpenAI to distribute ChatGPT, according to The Information, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI also discussed with employees cutting the ChatGPT subscription price to as low as several dollars instead of $20 a month, according to the report, which added that it is not clear if OpenAI has discussed the idea of price reduction with Reliance. Reliance has discussed selling OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an application programming interface, The Information report added, saying that the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate also discussed hosting and running OpenAI models locally, so the data of local customers can be kept within India. In particular, Reliance has discussed running the Meta and OpenAI models in a three-gigawatt data center that the company is planning to build, which it has said would be the largest data center in the world, located in the city of Jamnagar in Gujarat. Meta declined to comment on The Information report. OpenAI and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. Reliance Industries is one of the largest conglomerates in India, engaged in petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration, telecommunications, retail and green energy.

OpenAI and Meta Explore AI Partnerships with Reliance Industries in India

Reliance Industries Seeks AI Collaboration with OpenAI and Meta in India OpenAI and Meta Platforms conducted individual talks with Reliance Industries to establish partnerships to enhance artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in India. According to recent reports, OpenAI has identified Jio as the potential distribution partner for its AI offerings, comprising ChatGPT and other products. The partnership would enable Reliance to increase OpenAI's product distribution and advertising efforts across India while reaching the country's expanding AI market. Additionally Reliance is exploring selling OpenAI's models to Indian businesses through an application programming interface (API). This move would allow local enterprises to implement advanced AI capabilities across their operational systems. According to their discussions models could be operated locally at Reliance. This approach would support Indian data sovereignty principles because customer information would stay within national borders.

OpenAI, Meta in talks with Reliance for AI partnerships, The Information reports

(Reuters) - OpenAI and Meta Platforms have held separate discussions with India's Reliance Industries over potential partnerships to expand their artificial intelligence offerings in the country, technology news website The Information reported on Saturday. A possibility being discussed involved a relationship between Reliance Jio and OpenAI to distribute ChatGPT, according to The Information, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI also discussed with employees cutting the ChatGPT subscription price to as low as several dollars instead of $20 a month, according to the report, which added that it is not clear if OpenAI has discussed the idea of price reduction with Reliance. Reliance has discussed selling OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an application programming interface or API, The Information report added, saying that the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate also discussed hosting and running OpenAI models locally, so the data of local customers can be kept within India. In particular, Reliance has discussed running the Meta and OpenAI models in a three-gigawatt data center that the company is planning to build, which it has said is the largest data center in the world, located in the city of Jamnagar in Gujarat. Meta declined to comment on The Information report. OpenAI and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. Reliance Industries is one of the largest conglomerates in India, engaged in petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration, telecommunications, retail and green energy. (Reporting by Bipasha Dey and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Will Dunham)