Remember Trump's Announcement of a Texan Refinery with Reliance to Invest $300bn? ‘Only $40m’ Says FT

New Delhi: A refinery in Texas, which had been suddenly brought into conversation by US President Donald Trump in March when he termed it a “historic $300bn deal”, will involve “a modest initial outlay of around $40 million by Reliance Industries”, reports the Financial Times citing “two people familiar with the matter”.

Reliance is yet to either inform its shareholders or issue any public statement.

The project in Brownsville, Texas, if it gets off the ground, will be the first new refinery in the US in five decades. Trump had thanked Reliance for its “tremendous investment” three weeks ago.

The reason for Reliance’s silence, writes FT, as per sources familiar with the project, is that “Reliance’s initial investment will be only a fraction of Trump’s headline figure and does not reach the hurdle for a stock exchange notification”.

Reliance Industries told FT that it could not provide specifics because of strict confidentiality agreements. It added: “Reliance group has investment and will be involved in various aspects of the Brownsville Refinery.”

Trump unveiled the project from a little-known company called America First Refining (AFR) on Truth Social last month. AFR said it had “received a 9-figure investment from a global supermajor at a 10-figure valuation”.

AFR later confirmed this was Reliance, chaired by Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, and one of the biggest two Indian oligarchs. AFR’s refinery would cost up to $4 billion to build.

Danielle Alvarez, spokesperson for AFR, is quoted as saying that the company stands “behind every statement … including investment and $300bn value of the transaction”.

Trump’s announcement had come a few weeks after his government agreed to an interim trade agreement, belatedly, with the Modi government in India.

The US president also issued a controversial executive order barring India from buying cheap Russian oil, which it had been doing ever since the war on Ukraine introduced sanctions on the commodity.

This oil had meant an almost $6 billion windfall for Reliance. This restriction was temporarily taken back and India was ‘allowed’ to again resume some purchases of Russian oil to ease global oil prices, after the US and Israel’s war on Iran introduced a fresh energy crisis in global markets.

Since Trump took office in January last year, FT writes, “Ambani has sought to strengthen ties, spending $240,000 on lobbying in the US in 2025, according to Senate disclosures”.

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