Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., will come to South Korea for talks with Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong next week – a move seen as strengthening collaboration in next-generation telecommunications and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Ambani, 68, will arrive in Korea on Nov. 25 for a two-day trip with his eldest son Akash Ambani, chairman and chief of the board of directors of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter.
The Ambanis are slated to tour Samsung’s Suwon complex with the Samsung chair, known in the West by his English name Jay Y. Lee.
The Indian tycoons will inspect Samsung’s production lines for 5G equipment and early-stage 6G development.
They are visiting a Samsung site for the first time – a move that industry executives say signals the possibility of follow-on commercial deals.
The two Indian business leaders will then move to Seoul for a private dinner with Lee, joined by the head of Samsung’s networks division, which competes globally with Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia, sources said.
‘ALPHA AND OMEGA’ OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA
The meeting carries weight far beyond a routine courtesy call.
Mukesh Ambani, often called the “alpha and omega” of doing business in India, given his influence, presides over a sprawling conglomerate spanning energy, retail and telecoms in the world’s most populous country.
Reliance is also building what is expected to be the world’s largest AI-optimized data-center complex.
Forbes estimates Ambani’s net worth at $111.4 billion, making him Asia’s wealthiest individual and the world’s 15th.
Executives, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai have all recently courted Ambani as they vie for access to India’s digital infrastructure boom.
STRONG SAMSUNG-RELIANCE PARTNERSHIP
Reliance has long been one of Samsung’s most important overseas telecoms clients.
Since 2012, the Indian conglomerate has invested about 40 trillion won ($27.3 billion) to roll out a nationwide 4G LTE network, with Samsung serving for more than a decade as its sole equipment supplier.
Reliance Jio, chaired by Akash Ambani since 2022, has grown into one of the world’s largest mobile carriers with more than 506 million subscribers as of September.
India’s transition to 5G has opened up new competitive dynamics.
New Delhi, locked in geopolitical tensions with Beijing, has blocked Huawei’s 5G equipment from its networks.
Much of the early replacement demand went to Ericsson and Nokia – a gap Samsung hopes to narrow as Reliance scales up its newest build-outs.
Reliance is also developing a 3 GW data-center complex in the western state of Gujarat, one of the largest single-site projects globally, and is planning another GW-class data center in the country’s southeastern region.
For Samsung, those facilities present a potentially vast market for high-speed networking gear tailored to AI workloads.
LEE’S PERSONAL DIPLOMACY
Analysts said next week’s gathering could become a catalyst for Samsung’s networks unit, which has struggled to secure major international wins in recent years.
The company’s semiconductor foundry arm has only recently emerged from a prolonged slump after landing a significant AI-chip order from Tesla.
Lee has cultivated unusually close ties with Ambani’s family, being the only Korean business leader invited to all three of the Reliance heirs’ highly publicized weddings.
His appearance in a traditional Indian turban at Akash Ambani’s 2019 ceremony became a social-media sensation
Since last year, Lee has held high-profile meetings with Nvidia’s Huang, Meta’s Zuckerberg, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Xiaomi’s Lei Jun and Mercedes-Benz chief Ola Källenius.
A recent casual fried-chicken dinner in Seoul with Nvidia’s Huang preceded Samsung’s announcement that it will “pre-purchase” 50,000 Nvidia GPUs amid a global shortage.
A video call with Elon Musk helped secure a Tesla order for AI chips manufactured on Samsung’s advanced foundry lines.
Lee also maintains long-standing ties with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, fueling speculation that Samsung could extend its AI data-center partnerships to the Gulf.
