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Days after the <\/span>Adani Group announced<\/a> a mammoth $100 billion plan for artificial intelligence (AI)-ready data centres and power, fellow conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) fired another salvo on Thursday with a $110 billion ( \u20b9<\/span>10 trillion) bet to build India\u2019s sovereign AI backbone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The money would be invested over seven years by RIL and Jio Platforms (its digital business), Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said on the fourth day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alongside, Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran announced at the same event that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed up American AI giant OpenAI as the anchor client for its upcoming data centre. The two companies will collaborate to develop secure, India-based AI infrastructure aimed at strengthening data sovereignty and long-term compute capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ambani said RIL and Jio would build what he described as India\u2019s sovereign compute infrastructure, including multi-gigawatt (GW) AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar, green energy-backed capacity, and a nationwide edge network to make AI affordable and widely accessible.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIndia cannot afford to rent intelligence. Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of data,\u201d Ambani said in his address at the summit, adding that \u201can edge-compute layer, deeply integrated with Jio\u2019s network, will make intelligence responsive, low-latency and affordable\u2014close to where Indians live, learn and work\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shares of RIL closed 2.4% lower at <\/span> \u20b9<\/span>1,407.2 on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The company is looking to bring up about 120MW (megawatt) data centre capacity in the second half of 2026 to support high-scale compute for training and large-scale inference of AI systems. The company is currently preparing to file draft papers <\/span>for listing Jio Platforms on the exchanges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, Tata Sons\u2019 Chandrasekaran said the collaboration between OpenAI and Tata Group marked a major milestone in India\u2019s vision to become a global leader in AI.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are pleased to partner with OpenAI to create state-of-the-art AI infrastructure in India. This is a unique opportunity for OpenAI and TCS to transform industries. Together we will skill India\u2019s youth and empower them to succeed in the AI era,\u201d Chandrasekaran said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last year, TCS announced a $7 billion ( \u20b9<\/span>55,000\u201357,000 crore) <\/span>investment over the next five to seven years<\/a> to build 1GW of AI-ready, sovereign data centre capacity in India, beginning with an initial capacity of 100MW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This infrastructure will enable OpenAI\u2019s most advanced models to run securely in India, delivering lower latency while meeting data residency, security, and compliance requirements for mission-critical and government workloads, the company said in a note.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a fireside chat later in the evening on Thursday with Sam Altman, cofounder and chief executive of OpenAI, Chandrasekaran said the role of AI will be in fixing public services.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe may not do small things right, but India is great at big transformations. Look at digital payments\u2014we do 50% of the world\u2019s digital payments. Look at how we\u2019ve modernized the passport system. We still need to bring equality, fix our cities, and equate healthcare\u2014all of this will happen with AI. Thank god there is AI,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAI scale needs reliable compute, and data centres are the enabling layer that determines speed, cost, and trust. India\u2019s announced build-out signals a multi-year ramp up in domestic AI and cloud capacity, therefore the outlook is faster enterprise adoption and more local model training,\u201d said S. Anjani Kumar, partner at Deloitte India.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis investment pattern mirrors global tech leaders who are announcing capex in AI infrastructure. If India executes on capacity delivery, reliable operations, and trusted governance, it can become a preferred AI hub for global workloads and deployments,\u201d Kumar added.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a note in October, Macquarie Equity Research said India currently has 1.4GW (gigawatt) of operational data centre capacity, with another 1.4GW under construction and 5GW in the planning stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cKey thematic tailwinds include data localization laws, supportive regulatory environment and subsidies from central and state governments, rising enterprise cloud adoption, surge in mobile data demand and OTT (over-the-top) content, and growth of digital-native businesses,\u201d analysts at Macquarie said in the note.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Chandrasekaran also said TCS and Tata Communications are jointly building an \u201cAI operating system\u201d to create specialized, agentic AI solutions for industries globally. Alongside developing AI infrastructure, TCS in an exchange filing said Tata Group employees will also get access to Enterprise ChatGPT.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Post the announcement, shares of TCS on Thursday rose 2% intraday, before closing at <\/span> \u20b9<\/span>2,675, down 0.7%. Lately, <\/span>stocks of IT companies have been under pressure <\/a>owing to the new launches of AI models.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe notion that IT services will disappear in five years ignores the lessons of history on how technology has always evolved to create newer opportunities,\u201d said Ashok Soota, founder and chairman of Happiest Minds.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n