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India's largest-ever IPO just moved one step closer to reality — and the numbers attached to it are eye-watering. According to a Bloomberg report published on October 9, Jio Platforms Ltd. is set to price its shares at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 apiece in its planned initial public offering, targeting a fundraise of up to ₹30,200 crore (about $3.1 billion) at a company valuation approaching ₹10.3 lakh crore — roughly $107 billion.
According to reports from Bloomberg, The Hindu BusinessLine, Angel One and other outlets citing people familiar with the matter, the offering would dethrone Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,800-crore share sale of October 2024 as the biggest public issue in Indian history. The report also sketches the likely timetable: the anchor investor book opening on October 19, public subscription running October 21–23, and trading expected to begin on October 28 — though the company has not finalised the terms, and the dates, price range and valuation could still change.
What the company is selling
Jio Platforms is the telecom and digital-services arm of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries — the business that rewired how India uses the internet. Since its 2016 launch, Jio has become the country's largest mobile carrier, and its parent now bundles everything from broadband and cloud services to e-commerce under the Jio umbrella.
The scale of the proposed sale reflects the scale of the business. According to figures drawn from the draft prospectus the company filed in June, Jio Platforms reported FY26 revenue of ₹1,46,885 crore, EBITDA of ₹76,255 crore, and profit after tax above ₹30,000 crore. The IPO itself would comprise up to 270 million new shares — about 2.93% of post-issue equity — with no offer-for-sale component, meaning existing investors, including Meta and Google, are not cashing out. And for a sale of this size, the underwriting bench is accordingly enormous: 19 banks have been appointed, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Axis Capital, BNP Paribas and Citigroup.
The valuation puzzle
Here is where the story gets interesting. The reported ₹10.3-lakh-crore valuation is well below earlier expectations. The company had previously been positioned to seek something closer to ₹11 lakh crore, and brokerage estimates this summer ran hotter still: Motilal Oswal pegged Jio's value at $115–118 billion and Dolat Capital at around $110 billion.
The markdown is not a sign of weakness in the business — it is a sign of sobriety in the market. Indian equities have been in a choppy phase: foreign investors have pulled large sums from domestic stocks, the rupee has weakened, global bond yields are elevated, and oil prices are rising. Recent large offerings have delivered mixed post-listing performance. Pricing Jio slightly below the hype, in other words, looks like a deliberate choice to ensure the record-breaking float actually gets absorbed.
Why this IPO matters beyond the numbers
First, it gives ordinary investors direct exposure to Reliance's digital business — previously, the only way to bet on Jio was to buy Reliance Industries shares and take the whole conglomerate along. Second, it will be a decisive test of appetite for mega-floats in one of the world's busiest IPO markets: if Jio sails through, the pipeline of waiting giants — the National Stock Exchange's own long-awaited listing among them — gets a powerful green light. If it stumbles, the repricing ripples outward.
Either way, the ₹1,065–1,119 band is now the number to watch. For a company that put a smartphone in the hands of hundreds of millions of Indians, the next chapter begins with a stock ticker.
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