Jio Platform’s to create AI compute infra in collaboration with Nvidia
Jio Platforms, the subsidiary of Reliance Industries, today announced a collaboration with global chip design firm Nvidia to build cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) compute infrastructure.
The partnership will also work on the creation of a large foundational language model trained on the nation’s diverse languages and tailored for generative AI applications for the nation.
The latest development comes as media reports suggest that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is exploring a foray into semiconductor manufacturing. According to a Reuters report, encouraged by the Indian government, the group has held early-stage talks with foreign chipmakers.
While the company did not respond to queries on its foray into semiconductor manufacturing, Jio Platforms, in a statement, said that the new infrastructure will greatly speed up a wide range of India’s key initiatives and AI projects, including AI chatbots, drug discovery, climate research and more.
This partnership is expected to further build on Reliance Industries’ digital services business, which is housed under Jio Platforms.
In its statement, Jio Platforms said the new AI cloud infrastructure will enable researchers, developers, startups, scientists, AI practitioners, and others across India to access accelerated computing and high-speed, secure cloud networking.
As part of the collaboration, Nvidia will provide Jio with end-to-end AI supercomputer technologies, including CPU, GPU, networking, and AI operating systems and frameworks for building the most advanced AI models. Jio will manage and maintain the AI cloud infrastructure and oversee customer engagement and access.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, in a statement said, “As India advances from a country of data proliferation to creating technology infrastructure for widespread and accelerated growth, computing, and technology super centres like the one we envisage with Nvidia will provide the catalytic growth just like Jio did to our nation’s digital march.”
The AI infrastructure will be hosted in AI-ready computing data centres that will eventually expand to 2,000 MW.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said, “India has scale, data, and talent. With the most advanced AI computing infrastructure, Reliance can build its own large language models that power generative AI applications made in India, for the people of India.”
Jio’s attempt in building AI compute infrastructure comes even as Tata Sons, the salt-to-airline conglomerate, has announced its foray into semiconductor fabrication. The Indian government is keen to build semiconductor manufacturing capability within the country rather than buy China-made chips.