'We have to be owners of technology, not users,' says RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani

Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani has stressed the significance of owning technology instead of becoming dependent on other nations. In an interview with McKinsey & Company, Ambani said Reliance is focusing on being a deep-etch and advanced manufacturing company.

According to the Reliance Industries Chairman, the technology landscape is changing at an exponential speed. He stressed that the narrative of technology needs to be evolved.

"When we grew up, we were the users of technology, and it was clear that we had to license technology from abroad to ensure high quality. But we were subjugated to so many licenses," the business tycoon said.

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However, Ambani said he tried to bring the change in the narrative from 'users' of technology to becoming 'owners' of technology at his company.

"At Reliance, we have realized that technology changes lives. We want to create impact at scale that improves the lives of all Indians. Therefore, businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future. So, our North Star always has been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impactled," the industralist said.

Citing examples of RIL's usage of technology, Ambani said, "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. We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 percent, just to make sure that the 80 percent that we put in was good".

Further, on Artificial Intelligence, Ambani said his company is working to build a workforce that can solve complex problems before society and create wealth for the nation and the people.

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"We need not go into the high-risk GPU game. Let’s do everything downstream," the business tycoon said.

At the 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Reliance in 2024, Ambani had emphasized the transformative power of AI and its potential to combat global challenges.

At that time, he reiterated that 'breakthrough technologies and innovation have always been the greatest wealth creators for nations, as well as for corporations'.

Earlier, he called AI a pivotal moment in human evolution. Reliance has spent over Rs 11,000 crore ($1.5 billion) on Research & Development. For Ambani, the tech-driven transformation will drive Reliance into a new era of hyper-growth.