Jio Platforms values itself at $131.5 billion after record IPO

Jio Platforms raised $3.2 billion in its initial public offering, the largest in Indian history. The capital raise was marked by a public celebration in Mumbai featuring drone shows and musical performances. The company’s shares increased by 21 percent on Wednesday. This surge valued the firm at $131.5 billion. It is now the second most valuable company in India, trailing only its parent, Reliance Industries.

Mukesh Ambani, the 69-year-old founder of Reliance Industries, is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of $80 billion. He launched Jio in 2016 to enter the telecommunications market. At the time, American consumers paid an average of $7 per gigabyte for mobile data. Jio disrupted the market by offering data for free for several months. The company committed nearly $22.48 billion to spectrum acquisition and network infrastructure in September 2016. It reached 100 million subscribers within its first 170 days, a record speed for a mobile operator globally.

The entry of Jio forced competitors to lower prices sharply. This move drove average telecom revenues per subscriber down by 42.8 percent between 2016 and 2019. The rate fell from $1.32 to $0.75, according to a study in ScienceDirect. Seven of the ten incumbent operators left the market during this period through bankruptcy or merger. These exits included Aircel, Videocon, Telenor India, Tata Teleservices, and Reliance Communications. Reliance Communications, owned by Mukesh Ambani’s brother Anil Ambani, filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The two brothers have maintained a long-standing dispute over the family business empire since their father died in 2002.

Today, Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea control more than 92 percent of the Indian telecom market. Researchers noted that while consumers benefited from low prices during the initial competition, those advantages diminished as the market consolidated. In July 2024, Jio raised plan prices by 12 to 25 percent. Other operators followed with similar tariff increases. Jio’s IPO disclosures warned that further price hikes might not increase revenue if customers downgrade plans or switch providers. The company now serves more than 530 million customers and includes streaming and cloud services in its ecosystem.

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani and an additional director on the board, addressed the crowd at the Mumbai event. He stated that Jio pulses through every digital dream in India and is now shared with the country. Global tech companies Meta and Google are major shareholders, having invested billions in 2020.

Jio is currently evaluating the deployment of a low-Earth-orbit satellite to provide internet services from space. This move would place it in direct competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink. Starlink has sought regulatory approval to operate in India for several years. Musk recently criticized the Indian government on social media, accusing it of stalling Starlink’s entry to favor Jio. He addressed Ambani directly, questioning if he would allow Starlink to compete and describing the current market structure as a monopolistic chokehold held by oligarchs.

Reliance Industries responded to Musk’s comments in a statement issued on X. The company said it has never feared competition. It noted that it has grown in an India that welcomes both homegrown and international investment and innovation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited India in October 2026. He toured the Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat, which is owned by Reliance Industries. During the visit, Rubio and Ambani discussed processing more Venezuelan oil. Ambani’s recent expansion into the United States includes this investment in the energy sector.