Reliance Industries Ltd., led by Mukesh Ambani, has announced a major partnership with Google to provide its telecom subscribers with 18 months of free access to Google’s AI pro platform, signaling an intensified race to attract users in the world’s most populous nation. According to a statement on Thursday, eligible Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. customers will gain premium access to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model, Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 models, expanded Notebook LM capabilities for research and study, and 2 terabytes of cloud storage. The collaboration is being facilitated through Reliance’s unit, Reliance Intelligence Ltd.
The move comes as AI companies increasingly compete for users and valuable human-generated data from India’s hundreds of millions of English-speaking internet users. Jio’s offer follows similar initiatives from OpenAI, which is providing a free year of ChatGPT Go service, and Perplexity AI, which has partnered with rival Bharti Airtel Ltd. to provide free premium AI access.
The 18-month offer, valued at 35,100 rupees ($396), will initially target Jio subscribers aged 18 to 25. Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is also an investor in Reliance Jio, which is reportedly preparing for a public listing next year. Reliance stated that the collaboration strengthens Reliance Intelligence as a strategic go-to-market partner for Google Cloud and will accelerate the adoption of Gemini Enterprise across Indian organizations.
