Indian conglomerate and one of the country's largest oil refiners, worth roughly $200bn and second in value only to the Tata Group. It runs the world's biggest oil refinery, with about 1.5% of global processing capacity, and accounts for around a third of India's natural-gas production. Jio, its telecoms arm, is the world's second-biggest mobile operator and is being spun off in what is expected to be India's largest-ever IPO (valuation $130bn-$150bn, raising roughly $3.5bn). Founded in the 1950s by Dhirubhai Ambani as a small commodities trader. The conglomerate's retail arm has more than 19,000 stores. Reliance Intelligence, an AI subsidiary launched in 2025, took a roughly one-third investment from Meta. In 2026 the group pledged $110bn for data centres over seven years; a multi-gigawatt facility is being built in Jamnagar. Reliance also runs gigafactories in Jamnagar for solar panels, batteries and green hydrogen, serving a 550,000-acre solar park (about three times the size of Singapore). Reliance has long benefited from geopolitical flexibility: while much of the world shunned Russia's oil after the invasion of Ukraine, Reliance picked up barrels at a deep discount. Other major Indian refiners include Nayara Energy (part-owned by Rosneft), Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.
Before the Gulf war, India got around 2.5m barrels a day—roughly half its imports—from the Middle East, chiefly Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz halved that supply.
In 2026 Reliance secured a licence from America to receive oil from Venezuela. The company has denied reports that it has bought Iranian oil. Many Indian refiners can switch to processing low-quality, high-sulphur oil instead of the Gulf's lighter grades.
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."