Ambani’s Jio Platforms files for $3.8 billion IPO that could be India's biggest

NEW DELHI: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has filed regulatory papers for a Mumbai IPO to raise around $3.8 billion, sources said, in what could be a record listing for the country. The IPO aims to unlock value from a company that includes Jio's telecom business, the world's second-largest operator by single-country subscribers after China Mobile. Jio Platforms counts Meta and Google among its major foreign investors. Proceeds from the offering will largely be used to repay debt of the telecoms business. Jio Platforms also runs AI, cloud and enterprise network businesses. The IPO will test India's capital markets, which have cooled in recent months after the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran rattled global markets and weighed on investor sentiment. The IPO is targeting a fundraising of around 360 billion rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of its post-issue equity, valuing the business at around $131 billion. The IPO prospectus, which did not contain the fundraising target, said proceeds will be used to repay an estimated 275 billion rupees ($2.92 billion) of Reliance Jio Infocomm's debt. It added the repayment of debt "will position the company favourably for continued investment in its strategic priorities, including 5G network densification and expansion, fixed broadband penetration, AI and cloud services..." At the annual shareholder meeting, Ambani said, "the Jio IPO is described as the most important value creation milestone this year." Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries. The final details could change closer to the listing process. Major investors, job cuts India was the world's second-largest IPO market in 2025, but recent volatility has tempered the pace of new listings, even as issuers such as the National Stock Exchange of India push ahead with plans to go public. Jio's IPO, if it raises $3.8 billion, would surpass Hyundai Motor India's 278.7 billion rupee ($2.95 billion) offering in 2024 to become the largest in the country's history. In 2020, Jio raised funds from global investors including Meta, Google and private equity firms Vista Equity Partners, KKR, General Atlantic and Silver Lake, as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, selling about 33% of its stake. Those investors are betting on India's fast-growing digital economy of 1.4 billion people, where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the world's lowest and a young, mobile-first population is moving online at scale. Jio's telecom arm had 524.4 million subscribers as of March 31, including 268.5 million on its 5G network, the prospectus said, adding that headcount fell about 21% to 27,935 during the same period, even as its subscriber base and revenue grew. In recent years, Jio Platforms has diversified beyond telecom into AI, cloud and enterprise network services, as well as app development. In 2023, Nvidia announced an AI partnership with Reliance to develop cloud infrastructure and language models. Its operating revenue in the financial year ending March 2026 stood at $15.6 billion, with a profit after tax of $3.19 billion.