Good afternoon, readers, and welcome to the weekend. It seems the race for AI dominance in India is officially on, with wallets wide open. Big tech and Indian conglomerates have collectively pledged tens of bns toward AI infrastructure in India. All these headlines are emerging from the India AI Impact summit, which concludes today.

Reliance Industries is planning to invest USD 110 bn in data centers and AI-linked infrastructure, rivalling the USD 100 bn pledge from Adani that we covered in the previous issue. Not to be left out, Tata Group is also making moves, having announced OpenAI as its anchor customer.

Plus: Abu Dhabi’s G42 will deploy an AI supercomputer as part of India’s state-backed AI mission.

All that, and more below.

Watch this space

Emirates NBD’s India outposts set for life under RBL: Emirates NBD shareholders approved a plan to fold the bank’s Indian branches into RBL Bank, according to a DFM filing (pdf). The resolution allows management to proceed with the merger of Emirates NBD’s existing three-branch network (Mumbai, Gurugram, and Chennai) into RBL, which is contingent on acquiring a majority stake (51-74%) in the Indian lender. This is the internal green light for the USD 3 bn transaction, which is facing several regulatory speed bumps.

The lender is also refreshing its funding toolkit: Emirates NBD shareholders approved an AED 6.32 bn dividend payout and a broad debt mandate, authorizing the bank to update its existing USD 20 bn EMTN and AUD 4 bn issuance programs and set up new funding lines of up to USD 10 bn. Within that limit, the bank has the flexibility to issue up to USD 2 bn in regulatory capital instruments.

OIL WATCH — State-run Bharat Petroleum has purchased its first-ever cargo of Venezuelan crude, and HPCL Mittal Energy has resumed buying Venezuelan oil after a two-year hiatus, Reuters reports, citing three sources familiar with the matter. The refiners are simultaneously cutting Russian oil supplies and increasing crude lifted from MENA.

Each refiner secured 1 mn barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude from energy trader Vitol. These shipments will boost India’s Venezuelan imports to at least 6 mn barrels through April.

MENA supply expands: Saudi Arabia’s crude shipments to India are tracking at about 1.26mnbbl / d in February, positioning the kingdom as the top source of oil this month. Saudi shipments rose from about 774k bbl / d in January to 1.26 mn bbl / d in February so far. Imports from the UAE increased to roughly 490k bbl / d in February from about 395k bbl / d in January.

Russian crude accounted for roughly 21.2% of India’s oil imports in January 2026, the lowest share since 2022, as refiners boosted supplies from the Middle East.

Context: Last month, the US dropped a 25% custom tariff on India linked to its Russian oil purchases. The US claims India has agreed to reduce Russian crude imports while increasing US and Venezuelan supplies, a claim New Delhi has not formally confirmed.

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Data point

USD 1.34 bn — that was the total funding raised by AI companies in India across 198 transactions in 2025, Business Standard reports.

IN CONTEXT- This amount is a mere 0.6% of the total global AI funding, which reached USD 225.8 bn in 2025. Much of the funding in India was directed towards early-stage startups. This trend suggests that AI investments in India have only just begun to gain traction, with US giants maintaining unchallenged dominance.

The big story abroad

Attention is split between a selloff of private credit stocks and the US’ ticking time bomb in Iran — plus former Prince Andrew’s arrest on the back of more revelations tied to his relationship with [redacted] offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Shares of private investment managers on Wall Street took a tumble after Blue Owl sold USD 1.4 bn of loan assets held in three of its private debt funds, and said it would replace quarterly redemption with payouts weighed on the group’s shares. Blue Owl’s shares fell 6%, while Ares Management, Apollo Global Management, KKR, Blackstone, and TPG all closed in the red.

The must-read on the topic: Private credit stocks slide after Blue Owl halts redemptions at fund

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has warned Iran it has 15 days to reach a nuclear agreement with the US before “bad things happen,” as it continues to amass its forces in the region. (Reuters)

Also getting attention: Former Prince Andrew was released after his arrest earlier in the day on the back of files that were released related to Epstein showing he shared classified information during his time as trade envoy.

AND- Nvidia looks to be backtracking on its planned USD 100 bn investment in OpenAI, which would have come in increments over several years and as the startup’s demand for compute grew, with plans to scrap it for a lumpsum USD 30 bn investment in exchange for equity. (Financial Times)

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