Jio is a technology company, not just a telco, says Akash Ambani ahead of mega IPO

Jio Platforms is betting that its technology, artificial intelligence and cloud ambitions will drive growth beyond telecom, Managing Director Akash Ambani said on Tuesday, pitching the Reliance Industries unit as a technology company ahead of what is set to be India's biggest-ever initial public offering.

"There is no either-or at Jio: the network is our technology," Ambani said in an interview with PTI, highlighting the company's in-house 5G core, cloud-native radio access network and software platform serving 533.3 million customers.

"Connectivity was the first product we built on that platform. Digital services, AI and cloud are what we are layering on top of it now," he said.

The Jio Platforms IPO

Jio Platforms plans to raise over ₹30,200 crore through the IPO, valuing the business at around $108 billion. The offering comes as investors assess whether the country's largest telecom operator can convert its vast customer base into higher-margin revenue from digital services, enterprise technology and AI, as subscriber growth alone becomes a less powerful driver of expansion.

The company has also identified satellite connectivity and next-generation 6G technology as future areas of development.

Ambani said Jio's growth opportunities extend across mobile services, to home broadband and enterprise digital solutions. Around 26 crore Indians still use 2G services, while fixed broadband reaches only about 21% of the country's households, he said.

Jio accounted for 67.56% of India's net fixed-broadband additions in FY26, while digital-services adoption among the country's more than 7.9 crore micro, small and medium enterprises remains below 3%, he added.

"We build for more customers, deeper engagement and more services per customer," Ambani said, noting that Jio users already consume an average of 43.7 GB of data a month. "Tariffs are one part of a much bigger story."

The IPO is also intended to strengthen Jio's balance sheet. Up to ₹27,500 crore of the net proceeds will be used to repay or prepay borrowings at Reliance Jio Infocomm, its telecom subsidiary.

Ambani said Jio's net debt-to-EBITDA ratio declined to 0.36 times in FY26 from 0.88 times in FY24, adding that the offering would provide greater financial flexibility for investment in 5G, broadband, AI, cloud and enterprise services.

Jio is also seeking to expand its technology business beyond India through partnerships with local operators.

Ambani said the company was evaluating an indigenous satellite constellation and ground-station network, alongside partnerships with global satellite providers, particularly to connect remote areas.

Its longer-term ambition includes making 6G largely a software upgrade rather than a wholesale network rebuild, building on its cloud-native infrastructure.

Technology as a differentiator

The company is positioning its technology credentials as a differentiator, citing 7,220 patent applications and its place among the top 20 companies in the World Intellectual Property Organization's global Patent Cooperation Treaty rankings in 2025.

Around 45%of Jio's full-time workforce, or 12,477 employees, work in digital products and technology development, Ambani said.

Jio is also seeking to broaden participation in the IPO. The issue includes reservations of up to ₹2,500 crore for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders and up to ₹500 crore for eligible employees, while at least 35% of the net offer is available to retail individual investors.

"My grandfather, Dhirubhai Ambani, was the one who started the equity culture in India," he said, adding that the offer structure was intended to allow families associated with Reliance for generations to participate directly.

Jio's global technology investors, including Google and Meta, are also expected to play a role in its next phase of expansion.

Jio's AI plans

Ambani said Jio users were being offered Google's AI Pro plan at no extra cost for 18 months, while Reliance Enterprise Intelligence, a joint venture involving Reliance Intelligence and Meta, plans to distribute enterprise AI products to businesses in India.

"Both are working partnerships, not just shareholdings," he said.

He declined to disclose specific revenue contributions from the collaborations, saying their value was embedded in Jio's consumer plans and enterprise offerings.

The public issue, which opens on October 21 and closes on October 23, is seeking to raise about ₹30,213 crore through a fresh issue of shares, with no offer-for-sale component.

At the top of its ₹1,065-1,119 price band, Jio is valued at roughly $108 billion. The valuation is well short of the more than $150 billion that the company had reportedly hoped for when it filed its draft prospectus in June.

The issue is a fresh offering of up to 27 crore shares, and no offer-for-sale component implies that existing shareholders are not selling. It is about 14% smaller than the roughly ₹35,000 crore indicated in the draft papers. Even so, it is set to exceed Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,870 crore IPO of 2024 and become India's largest by value.

On Monday, the company allotted shares worth about ₹8,110 crore to 212 anchor investors at ₹1,119 apiece, the top of its price band, ahead of the public offering. Bids for the anchor allocation exceeded ₹2.5 lakh crore, more than 30 times the amount available, according to people familiar with the matter. One person put total demand at about $26 billion.