Jio Platforms enters the world stage with the largest IPO in Indian history. With AI and satellite internet, the Indian giant is heading straight for established US tech giants. But how realistic is the rise to become a global heavyweight?
With Jio Platforms, Indian multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani is bringing part of his conglomerate Reliance Industries public for the first time in two decades. The telecom and digital group's issue was originally planned for 2024 at the latest, but was postponed twice. The reason for the most recent delay in the spring was the Iran war.
In the largest issue in India's history, demand far exceeded supply: by the end of the subscription period on Friday, the share was 22 times oversubscribed. At the high end of the price range, this would represent demand of more than $77 billion - a volume never achieved by any other IPO in India.
"The mega IPO of Jio Platforms could become one of India's most important capital market events," says Andreas Lipkow, chief market analyst at CMC Markets ntv.de. This is about much more than just evaluating a telecommunications company. "The IPO is a significant vote of confidence in the Indian capital market and India's position in the technology sector." Jacques Abramowicz, analyst at TMT Consulting, agrees. According to him, the IPO highlights India's growing ability to finance digital companies on a global scale. “The IPO of Jio Platforms is remarkable evidence of the performance of the Indian capital market,” says Abramowicz when asked by ntv.de.
The enormous rush of investors is no coincidence: the company was founded in 2016 with the aim of providing fast internet access to the almost 1.5 billion people in India. The company quickly managed to undercut its competition with competitive prices of just $2 a month. As of June this year, Jio had 533 million users. This corresponds to around a third of the total Indian population.
Jio Platforms generates around 90 percent of its revenue from the telecommunications business. In the 2025/26 financial year, the company generated a profit of $3.2 billion on sales of $15.5 billion. The US internet giants Meta and Alphabet as well as other international investors bought into Jio Platforms years ago. Reliance continues to hold 66.4 percent stake.
“Proof of trust comes after initial listing”
According to insiders, the Jio shares will be issued at the highest price. This would mean that the group would be valued at a total of $108.3 billion. When the shares are traded for the first time tomorrow, Wednesday, Jio should immediately become one of India's most valuable companies.
Despite the 22-fold oversubscription, analyst Abramowicz urges differentiation: Although the high demand shows great confidence in the offer price, it is not a blanket vote of confidence for all Indian assets. Since the 70-fold oversubscribed tranche with institutional investors includes both domestic and international investors, the result does not solely reflect foreign interest. Lipkow also dampens premature euphoria: "The real proof of trust only comes after the initial listing." Only then will it become clear whether the institutional investors will maintain or even further expand their positions even in the event of temporary price losses.
Lipkow considers the signaling effect of the IPO to be even more important than the issue volume and valuation. "Jio Platforms is creating a listed technology group that connects its own digital infrastructure, hundreds of millions of customers and increasingly cloud and AI applications." India is increasingly developing from a pure technology service provider to the owner of its own digital platforms.
In fact, Jio is massively pushing ahead with transformation: In June, the company informed its shareholders that it was investing more in artificial intelligence. Through its “Reliance Intelligence” division, the company is setting up its own data centers and developing voice-based AI models in 22 Indian languages. Jio is also pushing into the satellite internet business. Last year, the company partnered with SpaceX to distribute Starlink devices in India. At the same time, however, Jio appears as a competitor to Musk's space company, as the group operates its own division for satellites in low Earth orbit.
Market success is not yet a structural change
Since the government in New Delhi has not yet granted a final license for satellite broadband services to any provider, competition is now breaking out into the open. This month, Musk accused Mukesh Ambani of using his political influence to block Starlink's entry into India. He provocatively referred to him as “Prime Minister Ambani” and “the real head of India”. Jio responded calmly: "We welcome competition in satellite communications, including Starlink."
The fact that the company originally assumed a valuation of $150 billion when it submitted its draft prospectus represents a decline of around 28 percent. However, market observers see no reason to worry: "I would interpret this as a pragmatic price correction and not necessarily as a deterioration in the underlying business," says Abramowicz. However, a reduction compared to ambitious expectations does not mean that the share is now cheap.
The market currently values Jio higher than its main competitor, Airtel. Although both companies operate in the same market in India, investors pay almost 15 percent more for Jio based on expected profits. Abramowicz deduces from this that investors not only believe Jio will achieve stronger growth in traditional mobile communications, but are also counting on the group to also earn a lot of money in other future areas.
Despite the huge investor interest, Abramowicz and Lipkow emphasize that the market success does not yet mark a structural change. "A successful 'national champion' is not proof that India has become a global financial or technology center," says Abramowicz. In his view, the IPO shows that India has the capacity to mobilize capital and deliver digital services on a massive scale. Lipkow also points out: "However, the IPO does not yet prove that Mumbai can catch up with New York or Hong Kong as a global financial center." In the long term, market liquidity, regulatory stability and international tradability are crucial.
While Abramowicz sees the rise to a real counterpart to leading US tech platforms as an enormous hurdle, Lipkow believes a development into an AI giant based on the US model is conceivable, at least in the long term. However, he does not expect the company to become a second Alphabet or Microsoft in the short term. The business models are still too different for that. Jio is not yet a pure cloud company, but only has an associated cloud business unit. "The transformation into a technology company will only be successful if digital services make a substantial and profitable contribution to the group's profits. A high number of customers alone is not enough."
