Nations often ascend when great entrepreneurs emerge to build at scale. India is rising, and one of the clearest signals comes from Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries. He recently announced one of the most ambitious private-sector technology investments in Indian history, a ?10 trillion (about $110 billion) plan to develop renewable energy-powered, AI-ready data centers and edge computing infrastructure across the country over the next seven years.
The $110 billion commitment is projected to catalyze a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India by 2035, while triggering an additional $150 billion in private-sector spending across server manufacturing, sovereign cloud platforms, advanced cooling systems, power electronics, and related industries. Reliance expects the program to generate thousands of high-skill jobs and establish India as a net exporter of computing capacity and AI services.
Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Ambani described the initiative as India’s decisive step into what he called the “Intelligence Revolution,” a transformation he believes will be more profound than any previous Industrial Revolution.
The investment will support the construction of multiple gigawatt-scale data centers, a nationwide edge computing network, and a suite of AI services tightly integrated with Reliance’s Jio telecom platform. Work has already begun at Jamnagar in Gujarat, Reliance’s flagship industrial hub, with more than 120 megawatts of capacity expected to come online in the second half of 2026.
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Nigeria needs a Dangote for its digital future. Aliko Dangote helped power Nigeria’s rise in the industrial age; now we need a new generation of builders to anchor our transition into the digital era. Across the world, from the United States to India, national leaps have often followed the emergence of great entrepreneurs willing to invest boldly in foundational infrastructure. Nigeria must likewise find leaders who can unlock the promise of our digital economy at scale.
Interestingly, such transformation may well come from the established business class, which already possesses the capital base and operational discipline required to fund long-horizon innovation. The question then becomes one of policy alignment: should we consider targeted incentives, such as time-bound tax holidays, to encourage large-scale private investment in digital platforms and infrastructure, especially when public finances alone cannot build these ecosystems?
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