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India’s IPO market is stirring back to life. After months of delays, due to geopolitical uncertainty, volatile equity markets and uneven foreign inflows, some of the country’s largest listing candidates are finally moving ahead. 

Days apart, the National Stock Exchange and Jio Platforms filed draft papers with market regulator SEBI, signalling that confidence is returning to India’s IPO market. 

The filings come at a time when IPO activity has remained subdued. Several marquee offerings expected in early 2026 have been deferred as companies waited for improved market sentiment. Reliance Jio was among those waiting for better conditions. 

So far in 2026, companies have raised around $3.5 Bn (approximately ₹30,100 Cr) through public offerings, significantly lower than the $20 Bn (over ₹1.72 Lakh Cr) raised in each of the previous two years. However, market analysts expect activity to pick up in the second half of 2026 as several large issuers prepare to hit the market.

Now, the wait appears to be ending, with Jio filing its DRHP for what could be India’s largest-ever IPO. The company plans to issue up to 270 Mn new shares. At expected valuation levels, the transaction could raise around ₹37,700 Cr and value the company at approximately ₹11-12 Lakh Cr.

The IPO also marks RIL’s first major attempt to separately value one of the biggest businesses created in the last decade. 

Reliance poured hundreds of billions of dollars into telecom infrastructure, retail network, digital platforms, artificial intelligence initiatives and clean-energy projects. Large private equity players and corporate funds that backed Jio’s massive investments are now waiting for the returns.

Jio is a mature business. Its future growth story is no longer about adding more mobile subscribers. With 524.4 Mn users already on its network, the company’s next phase will depend on how effectively it can earn from each customer.

This is where things get complicated. Telecom businesses typically evolve through three stages. The first involves building networks. The second focuses on acquiring subscribers. The third is monetisation.

Jio spent much of the past decade completing the first two phases, investing heavily in spectrum, fibre infrastructure, transmission networks and customer acquisition. The result is a business with extraordinary reach.

The scale creates opportunities. Even modest improvements in average revenue per user (ARPU) can have a meaningful impact on earnings. According to estimates of market analysts, even a ₹10 increase in monthly ARPU across Jio’s subscriber base could potentially translate into roughly ₹6,000 Cr of additional annual profit.

Jio has already completed the most capital-intensive phase of its journey. Much of the network infrastructure has been built, customer acquisition costs have normalised, and future revenue growth could increasingly flow through to profitability.

However, the difficulty of sustaining high growth at Jio’s scale cannot be overlooked. Telecom history is filled with examples of operators that struggled to translate dominant market positions into sustained pricing power. While Jio’s subscriber base is a formidable asset, it does not automatically guarantee higher profitability.

This is where its broadband play comes to help. Jio has emerged as a leading player in fixed wireless access (FWA), which uses 5G networks to deliver home broadband without extensive fibre deployment. Broadband customers typically generate higher revenue, stay longer and are more likely to buy additional services than mobile-only users.

More importantly, broadband can also serve as an entry point into Jio’s wider digital ecosystem. By bundling entertainment, cloud storage, smart-home solutions and enterprise services, Jio can increase the value of each customer.

As a result, investors are likely to focus not just on subscriber numbers, but on how many services each user eventually adopts.

Investors Are Buying Optionality

The most contentious aspect of Jio’s valuation is that much of it depends on businesses that have not yet fully emerged. At ₹11-12 Lakh Cr, investors are not paying solely for telecom earnings. They are paying for optionality.

Reliance has spent the past year increasingly framing Jio as the foundation of a larger digital-infrastructure strategy. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, enterprise software, data centres, satellite connectivity and digital commerce all feature prominently in management’s vision.

This is where the valuation debate becomes complicated. Traditional telecom operators are valued primarily on cash flows. Technology platforms are valued for their future possibilities.

Jio sits somewhere between those two categories. On the one hand, its current earnings remain overwhelmingly telecom-driven. On the other hand, few telecom operators possess Jio’s combination of scale, balance-sheet backing and ecosystem reach.

Reliance is effectively arguing that the telecom network should be viewed as the foundation upon which multiple future businesses can be built. The AI narrative is equally important. At Reliance’s annual general meeting, management positioned AI as one of the group’s primary future growth engines.

But, with the market now littered with companies attempting to attach themselves to the AI theme without demonstrating a viable business model, the burden of proof remains on Reliance to show that AI investments are meaningful.

Perhaps the most important conclusion from Jio’s prospectus is that the IPO is not really about Jio. It is about Reliance. For years, the conglomerate has been asking investors to look beyond its legacy oil-to-chemicals business and recognise the value being created across telecom, retail, technology and energy. Markets have remained sceptical, in part because those businesses have existed within a single corporate structure.

Jio’s listing changes this dynamic. For the first time, investors will have a transparent market price for the group’s most valuable digital asset. That price will inevitably influence how investors think about Reliance Retail, its AI initiatives and the company’s emerging energy businesses.

The IPO, therefore, represents the beginning of a broader value-discovery process. The fact that the issue is entirely fresh capital with no offer-for-sale component reinforces this interpretation. Existing shareholders are not heading for the exit. Instead, Reliance appears to be creating an independent valuation benchmark while retaining ownership of what it clearly views as a long-term strategic asset.

The company may have spent a decade building networks, platforms and new businesses, but it is now time for the markets to decide how much that endeavour is worth and whether Jio can deliver on it.

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[Edited by Shishir Parasher]

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