Last Updated:
‘I am honoured and privileged to get to partner with you,’ Huang tells RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a conversation with RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai.
Chip behemoth Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on October 24 said Reliance Industries and Nvidia are partnering to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in India.
“This is an excellent opportunity for India to have a large population and a large population of computer engineers. This is such an extraordinary time. I am honoured and privileged to get to partner with you for this,” Huang told RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.
“Apart from the US and China, India has the best digital connectivity infrastructure,” said Ambani during a conversation with Jensen Huang in Mumbai.
“In just one year’s time, by the end of this year, we will have nearly 20 times more compute capacities here in India than just a little over a year ago,” Huang added, referring to the infrastructure for computing.
“Counting on Nvidia to deliver good quality AI infrastructure just the way Jio did it in telecom,” said Ambani.
In September last year, Reliance and Nvidia vowed to develop AI supercomputers in India and build large language models trained on its languages. Later that year, Nvidia unveiled a similar partnership with Tata Group.
Nvidia’s computing system GB-200 is undoubtedly the best technology, said Ambani, adding that he has “great respect” for Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
“Zuckerberg will go down in the history for making Llama open source,” said Ambani about Meta’s AI technology.
India will not just deliver CEOs to world, but also AI services, Huang told Ambani.
“PM Narendra Modi asked me to address his cabinet on AI six years ago, was the first national leader to make such an ask. PM Modi told me India shouldn’t export data to import intelligence, should not export flour to import bread. India exported software; in future, India will export AI,” added Huang.
In the Reliance partnership, announced in September 2023, Nvidia will provide the computing power required for building a cloud AI infrastructure platform, while Reliance unit Jio will manage and maintain the infrastructure and oversee customer engagement.
“Reliance will create AI applications and services for their 450 million Jio (telecom) customers and provide energy-efficient AI infrastructure to scientists, developers and startups across India,” Nvidia had said.
Nvidia globally has a near-monopoly on the computing systems used to power services like ChatGPT, OpenAI’s blockbuster generative AI chatbot. The AI powering such apps is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and from that writes a human-like response.
The partnership will give Reliance access to the latest version of Nvidia’s Grace Hopper Superchip, its AI chips that are optimized to perform AI inference functions that effectively power apps like ChatGPT.
Reliance said the new AI infrastructure will speed up a range of India’s key AI projects, including chatbots, drug discovery, and climate research.
(With inputs from Reuters)
