View: Can Ambani take on Chinese giants like Tencent, Huawei and Xiaomi?

With the $28 billion he’s raised working from home, India’s richest man wants to step into the breach created by the technology cold war between America and China. The two Silicon Valley tech giants that gave him a third of the money will help put him there.

It’s an audacious plan. Politicians in many nations, including the U.S., the U.K. and India, are reluctant to let Huawei Technologies Co., which they accuse of being an instrument of the Chinese state, become embedded in the fast-speed internet networks that will run everything from power stations to autonomous cars.

Ambani’s four-year-old Jio Platforms has indigenously built its own 5G technology, the tycoon announced at Wednesday’s annual general meeting of his flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. After testing it on the 400 million 4G customers he has in India, he’ll offer it to other markets.