India’s richest man now wants to turn aging computers into AI-ready PCs

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio is opening its cloud PC service to any internet user in India, positioning it as a way to turn aging computers into AI-ready machines without hardware upgrades.

On Wednesday, Reliance Jio expanded JioPC, originally launched in July 2025, beyond its own broadband subscribers, making the service available as a standalone subscription to users with an internet connection, regardless of their telecom or broadband provider. The service streams a virtual PC from Jio’s cloud to an existing computer, with plans offering up to eight virtual CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Jio says the service can give even computers as old as eight years access to the computing power needed for modern AI applications, without users replacing their machines or installing new hardware. Plans start at ₹1,000 (about $11) for two months, while a 12-month subscription costs ₹4,000 (around $42) for 8GB of RAM and 500GB of storage, or ₹5,000 (about $53) for the 16GB and 1TB configuration.

India had more than 65 million PCs in use in 2025, including about 34 million consumer and 31 million commercial machines, according to estimates from IDC, which expects the installed base to approach 69 million by the end of 2026.