Reliance Industries Shifts Focus to Deep-Tech and AI, Aiming for Societal Impact

We reinvest our business every 3-5 yrs; aim to become a deep-tech co: Mukesh Ambani - The Economic Times

Mukesh Ambani says Reliance reinvents itself every three to five years and is now focused on becoming a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing firm. He emphasises long-term impact, innovation, and legacy, with AI and clean energy as key areas. Ambani values character, competence, and culture in building a future-ready, purpose-led institution.Billionaire Mukesh Ambani says his oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance reinvests business every 3-5 years and is aiming to become a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company. In an interview to McKinsey and Company's Leading Asia series, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd shared his vision of the future of the company. His playbook includes reinventing before being forced to, betting big on the future and staying anchored in long-term impact. At Reliance, reinvention has meant building the world's largest refinery, launching 4G connectivity across India, and investing $25 billion to digitise India through Jio. It is now building one of the world's largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy, covering solar, batteries, hydrogen, and bio-energy. Ambani said the technology landscape is changing at an exponential speed and the key challenge for the next generation will be succeeding in this new order. "Businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future. So, our North Star has always been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led," he said. "That's in the DNA of Reliance. We will figure out where to get to, what we want to do - as long as we have the right talent and we have the right goal." The goal, even at the beginning of Reliance's journey over four decades ago, was to contribute to making India a prosperous nation and enabling all Indians to live a better life. "Between my father and I, as owner-leaders, we believed in this goal and we built a team that also believed in it and executed it with equal zeal." That focus on the North Star, on achieving continuous growth through excellence, and creating large-scale societal impact remains unchanged in Reliance. "What changes is our business strategy. Even today, we reinvent our business every three, four, or five years in terms of what we do," he said. Ambani said the ambition for deep-tech began with the telecom foray, when Jio launched 5G in 2021, building every aspect of the service within the company. "We built everything ourselves, end to end-the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece. We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 per cent, just to make sure that the 80 per cent that we put in was good," he said. The desire to develop technology stemmed from the era when the landscape was subjected to a lot of licenses for the technology. "When we grew up, we were the users of technology, and it was clear that we had to license technology from abroad to ensure high quality. But we were subjugated to so many licenses. It was also high risk because, at the end of the day, if a plan didn't work, you could lose your shirt," he said. He encouraged his leadership to be 'owners of technology' to become innovators. "The change now for Reliance is that we are going to be a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company," he said. Reliance has set its purpose in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) game by choosing to develop things that are 'downstream' and avoid the high-risk GPU game, he said. "Our big purpose is to solve the complex problems before society and create wealth for the nation and the people. For this, we need not go into the high-risk GPU game. Let's do everything downstream." Asked about what is the guiding light or 'North Star' for Reliance, Ambani said, "I am very loyal to my father's vision... Our North Star has always been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led. My father used to say that if you want to start a business to be a billionaire, you are an idiot; you will never get there. If you want to start a business to impact a billion people, then you have a good chance of success, and, as a byproduct, you can make a reasonable amount of money." He also further shared his aim for longevity of Reliance and leaving behind a legacy through the company. "We are believers that, at the end of the day, you come without anything into this world, and you leave without taking anything with you. What you leave behind is an institution." Recalling his father's words, he said: "Reliance is a process. It's an institution that should last. You have to make sure that Reliance lasts beyond you and me." "That's my commitment to him - that Reliance will last beyond us. In 2027, Reliance will celebrate its golden jubilee. But I want Reliance to continue to serve India and humanity even after completing 100 years. And I am confident it will," he said. On how he gets the 'right people' for his company and vision, Ambani said that the focus is on three Cs - character, competence and culture. Character is more important than competence because competence can be built.

When Ambani gambled own money to connect Bharat

Dhirubhai Ambani's vision of affordable communication for all Indians became a reality with Reliance Jio's launch in 2016. Mukesh Ambani's bold $25 billion investment revolutionized India's digital landscape, offering free voice calls and cheap data. Jio's disruptive entry transformed the telecom sector, benefiting consumers with affordable connectivity and propelling India into a leading mobile broadband data consumer.Dhirubhai Ambani, the late father of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, built one of India's biggest conglomerates from scratch. His biggest achievement was setting up the world's largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar in 1999. But that wasn't all. He had another ambitious goal for Reliance. Decades ago, Dhirubhai used to say if you made a phone call cheaper than a postcard, you would revolutionise the lives of millions of Indians. His son, Mukesh, made his dream a reality. His Reliance Jio not only made a phone call totally free, it made even the handset cheaper than a postcard because it came free against a refundable deposit fee. The launch of Reliance Jio in 2016 brought 4G and 5G connectivity to all of India and became the country's leading digital services company with nearly 500 million subscribers. "My father used to say that if you want to start a business to be a billionaire, you are an idiot; you will never get there," Ambani told McKinsey's Gautam Kumra in an interview published today. "If you want to start a business to impact a billion people, then you have a good chance of success, and, as a by-product, you can make a reasonable amount of money." That was the vision that led to the creation of Reliance Jio in 2016 and its astounding success. But it did not come without a significant risk -- Ambani was gambling his own money on this venture. Also Read: Ambani's biggest risk and dreams powering Reliance today Reliance jio was a gamble Ambani played with a belief in the power of the mass connect. He was throwing $25 billion investment into an untested market. And most of it was his own money. Today, Reliance Jio valuation is estimated to have reached nearly five times of the initial investment. "We've always taken big risks because, for us, scale is important," Ambani told Kumra. "The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio. At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and l was the majority shareholder. Our worst-case scenario was that it might not work out financially because some analysts thought India wasn't ready for the most advanced digital technology. But I told my board, "In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That's okay because it's our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitized India, and thereby completely transformed India." Ambani's risky bet on Jio paid off spectacularly. Reliance Jio was Ambani's first display of grand ambition. His father's venture, the Jamnagar refinery, the single biggest investment in post-liberalized India at the time, marked a milestone for Reliance Industries and India Inc too.. Jio was a similar milestone. Mukesh Ambani believed Reliance Jio's free voice calling and cheap data strategy would catapult the country's billion-plus population into the digital age. And it did. In nearly two years of its launch in 2016, India became the world's largest mobile broadband data consuming nation. With its dirt-cheap data, Jio proved to be a big disruptor, sweeping aside the incumbents in the telecom sector and soon gaining the dominant position. Jio triggered a tectonic shift in the telecom sector. Before its entry, India had more than 10 wireless providers, with the smallest five accounting for about 21 percent and Bharti, the largest, taking up 25 percent. Ambani's grand dream to dominate the telecom sector shrank the market to just three big providers. The consumer was the gainer since data and call rates nosedived and became affordable for even the poor people in remote areas. By making data and handset available to Bharat, the huge number of masses at the bottom of the pyramid, Jio also helped the government's digital payments project for which cheap mass connectivity was required. Ambani likes his businesses to touch a large number of people. "In my view, real power means the ability to make an impact on the quality of life of the people," Ambani had once said. "Power needs to be measured by the impact of an individual's contribution to the movement of history." The growth of Reliance has run parallel to the trends in the Indian economy. "In the '70s, Reliance's dream was to make the colourful, long-lasting and aspirational polyester textiles available to all Indians. In the '80s, Reliance dreamt of a largely self-sufficient India in the wonder materials of that era - polyester, polymers and petrochemicals," Ambani once remarked. "In the '90s, Reliance dreamt of eliminating India's dependency on imported fuels refined abroad. In the first decade of the 21st century, Reliance was focused on enhancing India's energy security by exploring hydrocarbons in the depths of oceans. In the last 15-odd years, Reliance has pursued two big dreams - bringing the power of digital technology to every Indian, and to create an omni-channel retail network -- aimed at benefiting hundreds of millions of consumers," he said. Jio's success was based on marrying technology with scale. "At Reliance, as we've grown, we have realized that technology changes lives," Ambani told Kumra. We want to create impact at scale that improves the lives of all Indians. Therefore, businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future. So, our North Star always has been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led. "In 2021, we launched 5G. We built everything ourselves, end to end -- the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece," Ambani told Kumra. "We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 percent, just to make sure that the 80 percent that we put in was good. I also wanted to make sure that our people were not too full of themselves. l said to them, "You have to be better than these guys." And we are now. That gives us unique capabilities today that we are launching in the market. As it's our own technology, we will now be able to offer unique services." Ambani's penchant to play at a huge scale is now closely linked to technology. His dream is to turn Reliance into a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company. That dream had begun with Jio. "In 2021, we launched 5G. We built everything ourselves, end to end -- the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece. We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 percent, just to make sure that the 80 percent that we put in was good," he told Kumra. "When we grew up, we were the users of technology, and it was clear that we had to license technology from abroad to ensure high quality," he said. "But we were subjugated to so many licenses. It was also high risk because, at the end of the day, if a plan didn't work, you could lose your shirt. I used to push my leaders by saying, "We have to be owners of technology. We must be innovators." With its bet on renewable, AI and deep tech, Reliance is now morphing into a next-gen enterprise and also hopes to lead India's journey into a tech future. "At the beginning of building any new business, we ask ourselves: "What is the most critical need for India's development, and how can we fulfill it at scale and over a long arc of time?" That remains a fundamental piece of Reliance. We also have no hesitation in believing we can build businesses of the future. With our experience, we can extrapolate the future 20 years from today. That's why we didn't hesitate to build polyester first or to build 4G before its time. The same is now true about our newest business venture in new energy. We are building one of the world's largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy. It covers solar, batteries, hydrogen, bio-energy and much more. This is our contribution to saving planet Earth from the looming climate crisis," Ambani said in the interview.

We Built Everything Ourselves End to End: Core, Hardware, Software for Jio 5G, Says Mukesh Ambani

The company's AI strategy focuses on solving societal problems and attracting top minds. Reliance is set to become a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company. "At Reliance, as we've grown, we have realized that technology changes lives. We want to create impact at scale that improves the lives of all Indians. Therefore, businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future," said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, in an interview with Gautam Kumra, Chairman of McKinsey Asia (excluding China), published on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Also Read: Reliance Jio Digital App Ecosystem: An Overview of Offerings in 2025 "When we grew up, we were the users of technology, and it was clear that we had to license technology from abroad to ensure high quality. But we were subjugated to so many licenses. It was also high risk because, at the end of the day, if a plan didn't work, you could lose your shirt. I used to push my leaders by saying, We have to be owners of technology. We must be innovators," Ambani said, envisioning technology's impact on Reliance over the next decade. Also Read: Received Only 50GB Jio AI Cloud Storage and Not 100GB? Check Why Ambani said Reliance had built everything necessary for Jio to launch 5G in 2021, including the core, hardware, and software. Although there was support from Nokia and Ericsson, it was only to ensure that everything Reliance had built was in good form. Internet or Cached Data: The Internet or Just Cached Data: What Are Users Actually Using? "The change now for Reliance is that we are going to be a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company. We started with telecom. In 2021, we launched 5G. We built everything ourselves, end to end -- the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece. We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 percent, just to make sure that the 80 percent that we put in was good," Ambani said, speaking about Reliance's telecom venture, Jio. He added, "I also wanted to make sure that our people were not too full of themselves. I said to them, 'You have to be better than these guys.' And we are now. That gives us unique capabilities today that we are launching in the market. As it's our own technology, we will now be able to offer unique services." Also Read: Jio Building World's Best AI Infrastructure in India: Mukesh Ambani "That kind of movement is what we have seen in all our businesses. What people don't realize is that when you make OpenAI or other [artificial] intelligence, the same 500 people will work on it. Today they work for you, and after tomorrow, they work for someone else. They also have a purpose, and they say, 'As long as we align with the company's big purpose, we'll come to work for you.' We are doing that continually now." Ambani said. Also Read: Jio Delivers Data at 15 Cents a GB: Mukesh Ambani at Nvidia AI Summit 2024 "Within the AI field, we have created our purpose by saying, Our big purpose is to solve the complex problems before society and create wealth for the nation and the people. For this, we need not go into the high-risk GPU game. Let's do everything downstream. This has a compelling appeal on many bright minds. As a result, we are attracting the best people. If you are clear about your goal, and you know how to use technology, then you will achieve your North Star," Ambani said, explaining Jio's approach to GPU investments. Also Read: AI to Accelerate Drug Discovery and Medical Advancements: Mukesh Ambani Speaking about the significant risks involved in the USD 25 billion investment into an untested market with the launch of Reliance Jio in 2016 -- now valued at roughly USD 100 billion according to Kumra -- Ambani said, "We've always taken big risks because, for us, scale is important." "The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio. At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and I was the majority shareholder. Our worst-case scenario was that it might not work out financially because some analysts thought India wasn't ready for the most advanced digital technology. But I told my board, In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That's okay because it's our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitized India, and thereby completely transformed India," Ambani explained. Also Read: Akash Ambani Urges Rapid Adoption of AI and Data Centre Policy Reform in India On the topic of sustainability, Reliance is now building manufacturing systems for green and clean energy. "We are building one of the world's largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy. It covers solar, batteries, hydrogen, bio-energy and much more. This is our contribution to saving planet Earth from the looming climate crisis," Ambani concluded.