In a push to develop its AI footprint in rising markets, Google has partnered with billionaire Mukesh Ambani–led Reliance Industries to bundle its AI Professional subscription with Jio 5G plans at no additional price.
On Thursday, Google introduced a partnership with Reliance, India’s largest firm by market capitalization, to supply its AI Professional subscription free for 18 months to eligible Jio customers. The alliance comes simply three months after Perplexity teamed up with Reliance’s archrival Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, to supply free entry to Perplexity Professional for Airtel’s 360 million subscribers.
India, the world’s most populous nation and the second-largest web market with over a billion customers, has lengthy been an irresistible goal for international tech companies. Whereas the nation has not but seen a significant homegrown AI breakthrough, U.S. tech giants more and more view it as the subsequent massive frontier — a spot to assemble various information, refine fashions, and check AI use circumstances that would later scale throughout different rising markets. The most recent partnership between Google and Reliance is a transparent reflection of that technique.
The Jio supply will initially attain customers aged 18 to 25 earlier than increasing to all Jio subscribers nationwide, the businesses mentioned. It consists of entry to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Professional mannequin by way of the Gemini app, greater limits for producing AI photographs and movies with Nano Banana and Veo 3.1, expanded use of Pocket book LM for research and analysis, and a pair of TB of cloud storage throughout Google Photographs, Gmail, Drive, and WhatsApp backups.
“This partnership may also discover bringing extra pleasant native experiences powered by AI to Jio customers,” the Indian telecom large mentioned.
The 18-month supply is valued at ₹35,100 (about $396), the businesses mentioned. Google’s AI Professional plan usually prices ₹1,950 (round $22) monthly in India and features a free one-month trial.
Past the patron supply, Reliance additionally partnered with Google Cloud to broaden entry to its tensor processing items (TPUs) in India. Reliance’s AI subsidiary, Reliance Intelligence, will change into a strategic go-to-market associate for Google Cloud to develop Gemini Enterprise throughout Indian organizations and can develop its personal prebuilt AI brokers for the platform.
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“As we speak’s announcement will put Google’s cutting-edge AI instruments within the arms of customers, companies, and India’s vibrant developer group,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, mentioned in a ready assertion.
At its forty eighth annual normal assembly in late August, Reliance introduced partnerships with its traders Google and Meta to strengthen its AI infrastructure in India by way of a newly created subsidiary, Reliance Intelligence. Reliance and Meta additionally dedicated to organising a three way partnership with a mixed funding of ₹8.55 billion (roughly $100 million), with a 70/30 possession break up.
Earlier this week, Google rival OpenAI introduced plans to supply free entry to its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go plan to all customers in India beginning November 4. The entry-level tier, launched domestically in August, has since expanded to 17 international locations throughout Asia.
AI heavyweights like OpenAI and Anthropic are additionally organising store in India, hoping to be taught extra about native customers and develop their attain on this planet’s greatest rising market.
Earlier this yr, Google provided Indian college students a free one-year subscription to its AI Professional plan. That promotion ran till September 15.
India has already helped drive adoption of U.S.-led AI platforms and ranks among the many high client markets for instruments akin to Google’s Nano Banana, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude. Extending free entry to paid AI variations might additional speed up adoption and cement India’s place as a key progress client marketplace for generative AI choices. Nonetheless, it stays to be seen how India will translate into significant income for these AI corporations as soon as the present wave of free bundling provides runs its course.
“By way of our collaboration with strategic and long-term companions like Google, we intention to make India not simply AI-enabled however AI-empowered — the place each citizen and enterprise can harness clever instruments to create, innovate, and develop,” Ambani mentioned.
