Jio Platforms joins $100 billion IPO valuation club, only fourth ever after Meta, Alibaba, SpaceX

The listing pushed the company's market capitalisation to Rs 12.6 lakh crore, placing it behind only parent Reliance Industries in India's market capitalisation rankings. At its IPO offer price, Reliance Industries’ arm Jio Platforms was valued at approximately Rs 10.3 lakh crore, or around $108 billion, putting it alongside Meta, Alibaba and SpaceX in the group of founder-led businesses valued at more than $100 billion around the time of their public market debut.

The strong listing also propelled Jio Platforms past Bharti Airtel to become India's most valuable telecom company by market capitalisation. The debut further strengthened Reliance Industries' position, making the Reliance Group India's most valuable conglomerate by aggregate listed market capitalisation. For investors allotted the minimum lot of 23 shares under the shareholder category, the listing price translated into a gain of Rs 5,497 over the IPO allotment price.

The listing ceremony at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was attended by members of the Ambani family, who marked the occasion with a ceremonial gong strike. Jio Platforms' Rs 30,213-crore IPO attracted overwhelming demand despite volatility in global equity markets and selling pressure in Indian equities. The issue was subscribed more than 22 times, with combined demand across the public offering and anchor investor placement exceeding Rs 7.4 lakh crore.

The public issue was fully subscribed within 95 minutes of opening, while the total number of applications exceeded 1.3 crore. The IPO also marked another major milestone in Jio's capital-raising journey, following its approximately $20 billion private-market fundraise from 13 strategic and private equity investors in 2020. That fundraising had brought major global investors into Jio Platforms, including Meta and Google's parent Alphabet.

Jio Platforms' public market debut comes a decade after Reliance Jio entered India's telecom industry and expanded access to affordable mobile data. The company now serves more than 540 million customers, according to Managing Director Akash Ambani. At the listing ceremony, Ambani outlined plans to expand Jio's digital services beyond telecom connectivity into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, connected devices and space-based connectivity.

The company is also exploring international opportunities to monetise its proprietary telecom technology through partnerships with overseas operators.