Reliance Industries AGM 2024: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) conducted its 47th annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday, August 29. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate announced several projects as part of its digital and artificial intelligence (AI)- led future growth plans, along with key corporate actions, such as a bonus issue of shares slated for the near term.
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the company would launch a suite of AI tools and boost its green energy manufacturing ecosystem. The momentum picked by markets drove shares of Reliance Industries to gain over two per cent during Thursday's session to hit an intra-day high of ₹3,074.80 against a 52-week high of ₹3,217.90 apiece on the BSE.
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India's largest company by market cap announced that its Board will convene on Thursday, September 5, 2024, to consider and recommend to the shareholders the approval of a bonus issue of shares in the ratio of 1:1.
Bonus shares are additional shares that a company issues to its existing shareholders without any additional cost, based on the number of shares that a shareholder already owns. They are distributed in a specific ratio, such as 1:1, which means one bonus share for every one share held.
Reliance is transforming itself into a deep-tech company, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said while addressing the AGM, describing AI as a transformative event in the evolution of the human race that is opening up avenues to address complex problems facing mankind. RIL's telecom arm Jio today stands as a true deep-tech innovator, he noted.
Ambani said Reliance's ongoing tech-driven transformation will propel the company into a new orbit of hyper-growth and multiply its value for years to come. The strategic adoption of deep tech and advanced manufacturing will propel Reliance to secure a place in the global top-30 league in the near future, Ambani said, promising that the future is far brighter than the past.
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"Digital is another principal area of our in-house research. We have filed patents in 6G, 5G, AI-Large Language Models, AI-Deep Learning, Big Data, Devices, Internet of Things, and Narrowband-IoT," he said.
Stepping up RIL's AI and cloud play growth, Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio users will get up to 100 GB of free cloud storage to securely store and access their photos, videos, documents, digital content and data.
Ambani said the Jio AI-Cloud Welcome offer will be launched during Diwali, i.e., in November 2024. It will offer a "powerful and affordable solution where cloud data storage and data-powered AI services are available to everyone, everywhere."
Kiran Thomas, President of Reliance Jio, announced the launch of Jio TvOS, a fully home-grown operating system designed for the Jio Set Top Box. Jio TvOS promises an upgraded viewing experience with support for Ultra HD 4K video, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos, ensuring a richer and more immersive home entertainment system.
"Jio users will get up to 100 GB of free cloud storage to securely store and access all their photos, videos, documents, all other digital content, and data. And we will also have the most affordable prices in the market for those needing even higher storage," he said.
To support further AI adoption, Reliance Jio is developing a comprehensive suite of tools and platforms under the “Jio Brain” initiative. "To streamline AI adoption, Jio is developing a comprehensive suite of tools and platforms that span the entire AI lifecycle. We call this Jio Brain," said Ambani.
Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, said that RIL is developing a service that makes using AI as easy as making a phone call. “We call this service Jio Phonecall AI, which lets you use AI with every phone call. Jio Phonecall AI can record and store any call in Jio Cloud and automatically transcribe it, which means automatically convert it from voice to text,” said Akash Ambani.
“It can also summarise the call and even translate it into another language. This allows anyone to easily capture and access important voice conversations, making them searchable, shareable, and understandable across languages--all with just a few clicks,” he said.
Jio is also advancing its IoT solutions. The Jio Home IoT, integrated with Jio TvOS, enhances home automation by ensuring seamless compatibility between smart devices through Matter-compliant solutions. This integration allows users to control all their smart devices from a single, unified platform, making home management more intuitive and responsive.
Reliance Industries plans to commission its first solar giga-factory this year as part of a pivot towards green energy. The solar giga factory will include the manufacturing of PV modules, cells, wafers and ingots, polysilicon, and glass at a single location. The modules convert sunlight into electricity.
Chairman Ambani said the first train of 20GW solar PV (photovoltaic) manufacturing "will commence production" by the end of this year. It also targets industrialising sodium-ion cell production at the MW level in 2025 and the first 50 MWh a year lithium battery cells pilot in 2026.
In 2021, Reliance announced plans to invest $10 billion over three years to develop a new fuels business based on 100 GW of renewable power capacity by 2030. The plan involves setting up four giga factories in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to manufacture renewable equipment, battery storage, fuel cells, and hydrogen.
Reliance Retail director Isha Ambani said the retail arm is aiming to double its business in the next three to four years. For the financial year ended March 31, 2024, Reliance Retail recorded a gross revenue of ₹3.06 lakh crore (USD 36.8 billion), growing 17.8 per cent over the previous year.
"With the strong foundation we have built, I am confident that we will achieve our goal of doubling our retail business in the next 3-4 years," said Isha Ambani. In terms of market capitalisation, Reliance Retail is among the top-10 retailers globally and among the top-30 in terms of revenues.
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-Mukesh Ambani said that the conglomerate is not seeking short-term profit but is in the business of creating wealth for the nation. Speaking to shareholders, he said all of Reliance Industries Ltd's businesses continue to be key drivers of the Indian economy and have become success stories.
"We are not in the business of pursuing short-term profit and hoarding wealth. We are in the business of creating wealth for India," he said. “We are in the business of providing the highest quality products and services that improve efficiency, productivity, and ease of living for Indian consumers.”
-Mukesh Ambani also said India is now the world's largest data market, and Jio has become the global mobile data company with 490 million customers, who use over 30 GB of data on average per month.
Reliance Jio is capturing about 8 per cent of the global traffic and has surpassed major global operators. He pointed out that Jio's customers are using over 30 GB of data per month on average. Ambani said Jio has filed 350 patents in the area of 5G and 6G technology.
