Reliance: OpenAI and Meta platforms in talks with Reliance to explore potential AI partnerships

New Delhi: OpenAI and Meta Platforms are reportedly engaged in separate discussions with Reliance Industries to explore potential partnerships aimed at expanding their AI offerings in the country. The talks, first reported by technology news website The Information on March 22, 2025, signal a major push by global tech giants to tap into India's vast market and technological infrastructure.As per the news reports, one key proposal under consideration involves a collaboration between Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, and OpenAI, the organisation behind ChatGPT. This partnership could see Reliance Jio distributing OpenAI's AI chatbot to its user base.Additionally, Reliance has discussed selling OpenAI's models to its enterprise customers through an application programming interface (API), enabling businesses to integrate AI capabilities into their operations.OpenAI is also reportedly exploring a drastic reduction in the subscription price of ChatGPT, with internal discussions suggesting a drop from the current $20 per month to as low as a few dollars. While it remains unclear whether this pricing strategy has been formally proposed to Reliance, such a move could make AI more accessible to India's price-sensitive market, further boosting its adoption.Meanwhile, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is also eyeing a partnership with Reliance to bolster its AI footprint in India. Although specific details of Meta's discussions remain less defined, the company's prior investment of $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms in 2020 suggests a strong foundation for collaboration. Sources indicate that Meta may be competing with OpenAI to leverage Reliance's infrastructure for its own AI initiatives.A cornerstone of these discussions is Reliance's ambitious plan to build a three-gigawatt data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, touted as the largest AI-ready data centre in the world. The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate has proposed hosting and running AI models from both OpenAI and Meta at this facility, ensuring that Indian user data remains within the country-a move that aligns with India's growing emphasis on data sovereignty and privacy. The green energy-powered data centre could provide the computational backbone needed to deploy advanced AI solutions at scale.Reliance Industries has declined to comment on the reports, as have OpenAI and Meta.