February 21, 2026 – Eqwires Best Intraday tips provider in India, top trading tips company, Best Stock Advisory service in India

In a bold move that mirrors its historical disruption of the telecommunications sector, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced a staggering ₹10 lakh crore (approximately $110 billion) investment over the next seven years to build India’s foundational artificial intelligence infrastructure. Addressing the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on February 19, Chairman Mukesh Ambani declared that the “Jio moment” for intelligence has arrived, pledging to drive down the cost of AI compute as dramatically as the company did for mobile data a decade ago.

Building India’s Sovereign AI Backbone

The investment, beginning in 2026, marks one of the largest private-sector commitments to AI globally. At the heart of this strategy is the creation of “Jio Intelligence,” a dedicated vertical designed to establish India’s sovereign compute infrastructure. Ambani emphasized that “India cannot afford to rent intelligence,” signaling a strategic pivot away from reliance on foreign cloud providers and toward a self-reliant domestic ecosystem.

The rollout is anchored by three primary initiatives:

Gigawatt-Scale Data Centers: Reliance has already commenced construction on multi-gigawatt, AI-ready data centers in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The first phase, featuring over 120 megawatts of capacity, is scheduled to go live in the second half of 2026. These facilities are designed to handle massive training and inference workloads for the next generation of large language models (LLMs).
The Green Energy Advantage: To power these energy-intensive facilities, Reliance is leveraging its internal green energy ecosystem. The conglomerate plans to utilize a 10-gigawatt surplus of green power, primarily solar-driven, from its vast installations in Kutch and Andhra Pradesh.
Nationwide Edge Computing: By integrating an edge-compute layer directly into Jio’s 5G network, the company aims to deliver low-latency AI services close to where users live and work. This distributed architecture ensures that intelligence is responsive and affordable for everyone, from rural farmers to urban enterprises.

Redefining Work and Wealth: The Social Impact

Addressing the widespread anxiety regarding job losses, Ambani offered a reassuring outlook, asserting that AI will be a creator of high-skill employment rather than a destroyer of work. He likened AI to a “modern-day Akshaya Patra,” offering limitless productivity and knowledge augmentation. The group’s “Jio Shikshak” and “Jio Arogya” initiatives are already showcasing this vision by providing AI-powered educational assistance in 22 Indian languages and delivering medical guidance to remote areas in under five minutes.

The strategy also includes a deep partnership ecosystem with Indian startups, IITs, and research institutions. By providing affordable compute and co-development platforms, Reliance aims to catalyze a “people’s movement” in AI, ensuring that the technology democratizes opportunity rather than concentrating power in the hands of a global few.

A Competitive Landscape and Future Outlook

The ₹10 lakh crore announcement comes amid a wave of infrastructure spending in India. With the Adani Group committing $100 billion for AI-ready centers by 2035 and global giants like Microsoft and Google expanding their regional hubs, India is rapidly becoming the world’s most contested AI battleground. Reliance’s advantage lies in its “full-stack” approach—owning the connectivity (Jio), the power (Green Energy), and now the compute (Data Centers).

As the company prepares to list Jio Platforms on the exchanges, this investment is being characterized not as speculative capital, but as “disciplined, nation-building capital” intended to secure India’s strategic resilience for the next six decades.

To navigate these complex regulatory shifts and market volatility, investors need expert guidance from the most trusted names in the industry. As the Best SEBI-Registered Research Analyst in India, Eqwires provides unparalleled insights to help you secure your financial future. Whether you are looking for the Best Investment Strategies by Eqwires Research Analyst or seeking the expertise of the Best Options Trade Provider, our team ensures your portfolio remains resilient. Partnering with the Best SEBI-Registered Company in India means you have access to the Best Stock Market Service Provider in India. Trust the Best SEBI-Registered Eqwires Research Analyst to turn market challenges into profitable opportunities.

Eqwires Research Analyst

Top-notch SEBI registered research analyst

Best SEBI registered Intraday tips provider

info@eqwires.com

Telegram | Facebook | Instagram

Call: +91 9624421555 / +91 9624461555

www.eqwires.com

In a transformative move for India’s corporate lending landscape, the State Bank of India (SBI) has entered into high-level discussions with several major Japanese financial institutions to collaborate on merger and acquisition (M&A) financing. Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event on February 21, 2026, SBI Chairman C.S. Setty confirmed that the country’s largest lender is readying a massive “war chest” of approximately 94,000 crore rupees to fund domestic and cross-border acquisitions. This strategic pivot follows the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recent liberalization of acquisition finance norms, which has unlocked a potential 15-billion-dollar annual opportunity for domestic banks.

A New Era of Acquisition Finance

Historically, Indian banks were largely restricted from funding the equity portion of acquisitions, leaving the field open to offshore lenders, private credit funds, and global investment banks. However, the RBI’s updated guidelines—finalized on February 13, 2026—have fundamentally reshaped this territory.

Under the new framework:

Higher Leverage: Banks are now permitted to finance up to 75 percent of an acquisition’s total cost.
Capital Room: The total cap for acquisition finance has been doubled to 20 percent of a bank’s Tier-1 capital.
Expanded Scope: The eligibility for such financing has been extended to include unlisted companies and even creeping acquisitions by promoters.

SBI’s decision to tap into the Japanese banking ecosystem—home to giants like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Mizuho—is a calculated move to leverage their deep global expertise in complex leveraged buyouts and cross-border deal structures.

Why Japan? The Strategic Indo-Japan Corridor

The choice of Japanese partners is not incidental. Japanese “megabanks” have been among the most active inbound investors in the Indian financial services sector throughout 2025 and early 2026. Recent notable transactions, such as MUFG’s multi-billion dollar investment in Shriram Finance and SMBC’s strategic stake in Yes Bank, have already established a robust bridge between Tokyo and Mumbai.

Japanese lenders are known for their low-cost capital and a long-term strategic outlook on the Indian market. By partnering with these institutions, SBI aims to:

Distribute Risk: M&A financing often involves high-ticket sizes and complex risk profiles. Consortium-based lending with Japanese partners allows SBI to participate in mega-deals while staying within its risk appetite.
Technical Expertise: Japanese banks bring decades of experience in “plain vanilla” and structured acquisition financing, which will assist SBI in developing its own internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Global Network: As Indian conglomerates like the Adani Group, Reliance Industries, and Tata Group increasingly eye international targets, SBI’s tie-up with global Japanese entities provides a seamless financing channel for cross-border expansion.

Measured Entry into High-Stakes Lending

Despite the massive 94,000 crore rupee headroom, Chairman C.S. Setty emphasized a “slow and measured” approach. Initially, SBI will focus on “plain vanilla” transactions—those where the acquirer brings in clear equity and the bank provides straightforward debt—rather than jumping into complex mezzanine debt or highly leveraged structures.

The bank is currently in the process of formulating a comprehensive board-approved policy on acquisition finance. This policy will incorporate strict underwriting benchmarks, focusing on cash-flow certainty, debt-equity ratios (which must not exceed 3:1), and the creditworthiness of the acquiring entity (typically requiring a net worth of at least 500 crore rupees).

Market Implications and the Road Ahead

Analysts view SBI’s entry into M&A financing as a “strategic franchise enhancer.” Beyond the interest income from the loans, the bank stands to gain significant revenue from advisory mandates, underwriting roles, escrow services, and treasury products. This move is expected to deepen the domestic corporate bond market and provide Indian promoters with a viable, rupee-denominated alternative to expensive offshore borrowing.