Jio Platforms goes public: shares jump 21% after record IPO

A record-breaking stock market debut

Shares of Jio Platforms, the telecommunications and digital arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, rose 21% on their first day of trading on the National Stock Exchange of India on Wednesday. The company opened at ₹1,358 (about $14) versus its issue price of ₹1,119 (about $12), giving it a valuation of roughly ₹12.5 trillion ($131.9 billion) — making it India's second most valuable listed company after its parent Reliance (about $168.6 billion). This was reported by TechCrunch and AFP.

India's most oversubscribed offering in history

The IPO, held on October 21–22, raised $3.2 billion and attracted $77 billion in bids — demand exceeded supply 22.19 times, with more than 13.8 million applications filed. According to the exchange, it was the most oversubscribed share offering in India's history. All shares issued were new: investors, including Meta (which invested $5.7 billion in 2020) and Google ($4.5 billion), as well as General Atlantic, Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners, did not sell a single existing stake. For comparison, in 2020 Jio was valued at roughly $65 billion — its valuation has more than doubled in six years.

From free internet to AI and cloud

Jio entered India's telecom market in 2016 with free data and low prices, quickly pulling customers away from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and the state-owned BSNL, and became the country's largest operator. According to managing director Akash Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's elder son, the company's platforms serve more than 540 million customers (AFP cites more than 530 million subscribers). Jio's prices are now roughly on par with competitors, and the business has expanded into broadband access, cloud services and AI. At the listing ceremony, Akash Ambani said he wants to turn Jio into a global technology company: “My dream is that one day, when the world counts its great technology companies, one of them will be from India, and that company will be called Jio Platforms Limited.”

Financials and revenue plans

For the financial year ended March 2026, Jio posted a profit of ₹300.5 billion (about $3.2 billion) on revenue of ₹1.47 trillion (about $15.5 billion) — both figures grew about 15% year on year. In the June quarter, revenue rose nearly 12% and profit 9%. Of the IPO proceeds, up to ₹275 billion (about $2.9 billion) will go toward repaying the debt of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary, with the rest for general corporate purposes; Jio's total debt as of June 30 stood at ₹613.7 billion (about $6.5 billion).

Analyst views and a spat with Starlink

Analysts at Nomura, who initiated coverage of the stock on the day of the listing, note that Jio's focus has shifted “from acquiring users to earning from each customer,” and that the heavy 5G investment cycle is largely over, freeing up significant cash flow. Meanwhile, analysts at Motilal Oswal had earlier warned that the monetization of new digital services “has not yet been demonstrated at scale.” AFP also reports that, according to local media, Jio is considering a low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation for internet from space — which would compete with Elon Musk's Starlink, which is trying to enter the Indian market. This month, Musk accused unnamed Indian “oligarchs” of blocking Starlink's launch, calling the head of Reliance “the prime minister Ambani” and “the real boss of India”; Reliance responded that it has never “feared competition” and welcomes rivals' proposals in satellite communications, including Starlink's.