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. Reliance Jio expanded JioPC beyond its own broadband subscribers, making the service available as a stand-alone subscription to users with an internet connection, regardless of their telecom 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 states the service can give 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 for two months, while a 12-month subscription costs ₹4,000 for 8GB of RAM and 500GB of storage, or ₹5,000 for the 16GB and 1TB configuration. According to estimates from IDC, India had more than 65 million PCs in use in 2025, with the installed base expected to approach 69 million by the end of 2026. This move comes amid widening replacement cycles, as consumers and small businesses in India typically replace their PCs every five to six years. Jio is betting that cloud computing can stretch those lifecycles further by shifting processing and storage away from the device and into its data centers.