THE GIGANTIC FLYWHEEL

INDIA'S LARGEST PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANY HAS BEEN RIDING HIGH ON TELECOM AND RETAIL. IT NOW PLANS TO SCALE UP ITS NEW ENERGY BUSINESS AND KICKSTART RENEWABLE GIGA FACTORIES FROM NEXT YEAR.

- NEVIN JOHN

#1 HIGHEST REVENUE IN FY24
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES
Mukesh Ambani, CMD, RIL
TOTAL INCOME (FY24) ₹9,22,391 cr

MUKESH AMBANI is unstoppable when it comes to finding business opportunities and building deeptech ecosystems around it. During a recent conversation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Ambani said Reliance Industries (RIL) wants to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the country to make the technologies available at affordable cost. “We have to repeat a Jio for intelligence to be really affordable, available to the common people,” Ambani said at the Nvidia AI Summit at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai.

Ambani expects India to grow as one of the biggest AI markets. He wants to empower RIL’s operations with the intelligence for amplifying production, enhancing supply chain and quickly responding to market needs.

Capital has never been an issue for Ambani. RIL spent ₹1.3 lakh crore towards capital expenditure in FY24, compared with ₹1.4 lakh crore in the previous year for the expansion of 5G network and the retail business. It augmented oil and gas production, and invested in projects in the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) segment.

In the last three years, the giant refiner has been building its 5G network and expanding its retail footprint with the addition of stores and brands. It has also ventured into financial services and FMCG businesses. The construction of the Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat with five Giga factories — for integrated manufacturing of solar photovoltaic modules, energy storage battery, electrolyser, fuel cell, and power electronics—is in full swing. The solar energy venture is expected to make RIL carbon-neutral by 2035.