Jio Platforms rockets to India's No. 2 company on debut, Ambani moves to tears

Mukesh Ambani fought back tears on Wednesday as his three children took the stage at the National Stock Exchange to ring in the listing of Jio Platforms — and by the time trading closed, the numbers had justified every emotion. Jio ended its debut day up 27%, becoming India's second-most valuable listed company and leaving its parent, Reliance Industries, as the only firm ranked above it.

The stock opened at ₹1,358 — a 21% premium to its IPO price of ₹1,119 — touched a high of ₹1,424, and closed at approximately ₹1,417–1,419, according to Times of India and Indian Express. That gave Jio a market capitalisation of roughly ₹13.05–13.1 lakh crore ($137.1 billion), pushing long-time No. 2 Bharti Airtel, valued at ₹12.16–12.2 lakh crore, into third place.

It is only the second time in Indian corporate history that the two most valuable companies have belonged to the same group. The last time was in the late 1980s and 1990s, when Tata Steel and Tata Motors held those positions, according to Times of India.

The listing ceremony at the NSE brought four generations of the Ambani family together. Jio Platforms director Isha Ambani recalled that nearly half a century ago, her grandfather Dhirubhai Ambani had taken Reliance Industries public through a ₹2.8-crore IPO at a valuation of ₹10 crore, with the stated aim of letting ordinary Indians share in the company's growth.

He asked ordinary families to trust him. And they did, with their savings, and with their dreams. Almost 50 years later, that trust has come full circle.— Isha Ambani, Director, Jio Platforms

Akash Ambani, the 35-year-old eldest son of Mukesh and managing director of Jio Platforms, laid out an expansive vision for the decade ahead.

In the next ten years, the company aims to democratise every technology that can transform Indian lives, including AI, cloud, connected devices, connectivity even from space, and digital services not yet imagined, according to Times of India.

The IPO itself had already set records before a single share traded on the open market. India's largest-ever IPO was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of its launch — the fastest in the country's history — and was ultimately subscribed more than 22 times over, drawing nearly 1.3 crore investors, according to Times of India. Crucially, none of the existing shareholders — including Reliance Industries, Google, or Meta — sold any shares in the offer.

With Jio's listing, the combined market capitalisation of Reliance group companies — Reliance Industries, Jio Platforms, and Jio Financial Services — reached approximately ₹29.57–30.3 lakh crore, overtaking the Tata group (₹25.1–25.4 lakh crore) and the Adani group (₹16.5 lakh crore) to make the Ambani family business India's most valuable conglomerate, according to Indian Express and Times of India.

Reliance Industries retains a 64.41% stake in Jio Platforms after the IPO, down from 66.35% before it. Indian Express cautioned that Jio's market capitalisation should not be read as an equivalent increase in Ambani family wealth, since the value of Jio was already at least partly reflected in Reliance Industries' share price before the listing. The meaningful measure of wealth creation for the promoter group will be the change in the value of their existing holdings, not Jio's entire market cap.

Analysts see the listing as a structural positive for Jio's finances. With just 3% share dilution, Jio has wiped out nearly ₹300 billion of debt, according to Anurag Singh, founder and managing partner of U.S.-based Ansid Capital, speaking to CNBC. The proceeds from the IPO are expected to be used to repay legacy telecom debt, and Jio's 5G investment cycle is slowing, which analysts say should improve free cash flow significantly.

Jio brings a rare scale to Indian equities, with a customer base of more than half a billion, operating margins of 52% and net leverage of 0.36 times.— Vaqarjaved Khan, Senior Analyst, Angel One

At a market cap of $137.1 billion, Jio now sits in the same bracket as American telecom giants AT&T ($139 billion) and Verizon Communications ($179 billion), per LSEG data cited by CNBC. It also ranks as the fifth most valuable telecom services provider in the world, according to Times of India.

That scale, however, is also the source of analyst caution. At a price-to-earnings ratio of 34 times, Khan told CNBC that much of the quality is already priced in, and that future returns will depend on improvement in average revenue per user and the development of AI services. Singh similarly noted that most of the value has been priced in after the listing gains.

Jio's ambitions in satellite communications have already generated friction internationally. The company's plans to launch satellite services drew criticism from Elon Musk, who blamed the Ambanis for delays in the launch of Starlink in India earlier this month, according to CNBC.

What comes next for investors is a question of execution: whether Jio can translate its 540 million-plus customer base, dominant network, and freshly cleaned-up balance sheet into the AI and digital services growth its management has promised — and whether Reliance Industries' own share price will re-rate upward to reflect the now-visible standalone value of its most prized subsidiary.

Why it matters — Jio's debut reshapes India's corporate landscape — handing one family control of the country's two most valuable companies — while its balance sheet cleanup and AI ambitions will test whether a telecom giant can become a technology platform at global scale.

Sources differ on Jio Platforms market cap on listing day: ₹13.05 lakh crore ($137.1 billion) (cnbc.com / indianexpress.com) vs ₹13.1 lakh crore (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Sources differ on Reliance Industries market cap at time of listing: ₹15.17 lakh crore (indianexpress.com) vs ₹15.7 lakh crore (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Reported by indiatimes.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com, business-standard.com, cnbc.com, indianexpress.com, bloomberg.com, telegraphindia.com