Mukesh Ambani shares why Jio was the biggest risk he took, RIL's deep-tech push and the major challenge before India

Indian Express

4 hours ago

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has said the big challenge ahead for the country will be in the confidence of the next generation to succeed in the technology landscape that is changing at an exponential speed.
Businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future, Ambani said. 'So, our North Star always has been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led,' Ambani said in an interview to Gautam Kumra, chairman of McKinsey Asia (ex-China).
'We have realised that technology changes lives. We want to create impact at scale that improves the lives of all Indians,' Ambani said, adding that the Reliance group reinvents its business every three, four, or five years.
In the interview with McKinsey, Ambani also talked about why Jio was the biggest risk he took and the reason behind the move. The RIL chairman also elaborated on his plans to pivot Reliance into becoming a 'deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company'.
When asked whether investing $25 billion in Jio was a big risk, Ambani said: 'We've always taken big risks because, for us, scale is important. The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio. At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and l was the majority shareholder.'
'Our worst-case scenario was that it might not work out financially because some analysts thought India wasn't ready for the most advanced digital technology,' he said.
On artificial intelligence (AI), Ambani said: 'Within the AI field, we have created our purpose by saying, 'Our big purpose is to solve the complex problems before society and create wealth for the nation and the people. For this, we need not go into the high-risk GPU game. Let's do everything downstream.' This has a compelling appeal on many bright minds.'
'As a result, we are attracting the best people. If you are clear about your goal, and you know how to use technology, then you will achieve your North Star,' he said.
On building businesses of the future
Ambani said he has 'no hesitation in believing we can build businesses of the future.' He added that 'with our experience, we can extrapolate the future 20 years from today. That's why we didn't hesitate to build polyester first or to build 4G before its time. The same is now true about our newest business venture in new energy.'
Reliance is building one of the world's largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy. It covers solar, batteries, hydrogen, bio-energy and much more, Ambani said. 'This is our contribution to saving planet Earth from the looming climate crisis,' he said.
The focus on the North Star, on achieving continuous growth through excellence, and creating large-scale societal impact remains unchanged in Reliance, Ambani said in the McKinsey interview 'What changes is our business strategy. Even today, we reinvent our business every three, four, or five years in terms of what we do,' the RIL chairman said.
'The change now for Reliance is that we are going to be a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company. We started with telecom. In 2021, we launched 5G. We built everything ourselves, end to end—the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece,' he said.
Quoting his father Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh Ambani said, 'Reliance is a process. It's an institution that should last. You have to make sure that Reliance lasts beyond you and me.' 'That's my commitment to him — that Reliance will last beyond us,' the RIL chairman added. 'In 2027, Reliance will celebrate its golden jubilee. But I want Reliance to continue to serve India and humanity even after completing 100 years. And I am confident it will. That's the mindset we have when we say we believe in the businesses of the future,' he said.
'If you think about the Reliance of the 1960s and '70s, or of the 2000s and 2020s, it's a completely different organisation now,' Ambani said.
On success in business, he said, 'if you want to start a business to impact a billion people, then you have a good chance of success, and, as a by-product, you can make a reasonable amount of money. That's in the DNA of Reliance. We will figure out where to get to what we want to do — as long as we have the right talent and we have the right goal.'