Jio Was My ‘Biggest Risk,’ Would Have Been Our ‘Best Philanthropy’ If It Failed, Says Mukesh Ambani
MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has described the colossal investment in building the telecom major Jio as the “biggest risk” he has ever taken, revealing that he justified the venture by framing its potential failure as an act of philanthropy.
In a wide-ranging interview with consulting firm McKinsey, Ambani shared his business philosophy and his vision for the future of Reliance, explaining the mindset behind the company’s most transformative bets.
The Jio Gamble
Recalling the launch of Jio, Ambani acknowledged the widespread skepticism at the time. “The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio,” he said. “At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and I was the majority shareholder.”
Many analysts doubted that India was ready for the kind of advanced digital infrastructure that Reliance was building. Ambani detailed the worst-case scenario he presented to his board to justify the massive investment.
“I told my board, ‘In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That’s okay because it’s our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitised India and thereby completely transformed India’,” he explained.
A Father’s Advice and a New Energy Future
Ambani credited his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, for his guiding business principle. “My father used to say that if you want to start a business to be a billionaire, you are an idiot; you will never get there,” Ambani recalled. “If you want to start a business to impact a billion people, then you have a good chance of success.”
He stated that this philosophy is now driving Reliance’s massive push into the new green energy sector. “We are building one of the world’s largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy,” Ambani said, listing solar, batteries, hydrogen, and bio-energy as key areas. “This is our contribution to saving planet Earth from the looming climate crisis.”
He added that Reliance is fundamentally transforming into a “deep-tech” and “advanced manufacturing” company, citing the in-house development of its entire 5G technology stack as proof of this new direction.
