Jio Platforms, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Indian telecom and digital services unit backed by Meta and Google, jumped 21% in its stock market debut Wednesday after raising $3.2 billion in India’s largest and most-subscribed IPO, which attracted more than $77 billion in investor bids.
The shares opened at ₹1,358 (about $14) each, up from their IPO price of ₹1,119 (about $12). This values Jio at around ₹12.5 trillion (around $131.9 billion), making it the second-largest publicly traded company in India after its parent, Reliance Industries, which is worth around ₹16 trillion (around $168.6 billion). In 2020, when Meta and Google invested, Jio was valued as much as ₹4.91 trillion (around $65 billion at the time).
The offering, which ran Oct. 21-22, attracted bids for 22.19 times the shares offered for sale, according to exchange data. More than 13.8 million people applied. This makes it the most subscribed share offering ever in India, reflecting strong investor demand for shares of the country’s largest telecom operator.
In 2016, Jio entered what was then a crowded Indian telecom market, offering free data and low-cost services. This allowed it to quickly gain customers from established operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL. It has since become the largest telecommunications operator in the country. Akash Ambani (pictured above), chief executive of Jio Platforms, said at Wednesday’s listing ceremony that its platforms serve more than 540 million customers. Jio’s pricing is now broadly in line with rivals, but its business has expanded into broadband, cloud services and AI.
Mukesh Ambani’s eldest son Akash has taken on a bigger role at Jio as his father gradually hands more responsibilities to the next generation of Reliance leaders. During the listing ceremony, he said that he wants Jio to become a global technology company. “My dream is that one day when the world has its big technology companies, one of them will come from India and that company will be called Jio Platforms Limited,” he said.
Jio made a profit of ₹300.5 billion (around $3.2 billion) on revenue of ₹1.47 trillion (around $15.5 billion) in the financial year ending March 2026, with both figures up around 15% from the previous year. In the June quarter, Jio’s revenue grew nearly 12% and profits grew 9%.
With proceeds from the IPO, Jio plans to use up to ₹275 billion (around $2.9 billion) to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the rest earmarked for general corporate purposes. Jio had total borrowings of ₹613.7 billion (around $6.5 billion) as of June 30.
Jio attracted billions of dollars from US investors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Meta, then known as Facebook, invested $5.7 billion, while Google invested $4.5 billion. Other investors who backed the company included General Atlantic, Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners. None sold shares in the IPO, which consisted entirely of newly issued shares.
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