Akash Ambani would rather talk technology than himself. In an email interview ahead of the company’s initial public offering opening on Wednesday, the managing director of Jio Platforms focuses on scale, technology and the promise of long-term value, drawing heavily on the Jio story his father Mukesh Ambani built.
Akash comes across as a technology enthusiast who spent the past decade in the trenches, helping build Jio from its 2016 launch into one of India’s most consequential digital businesses. This quiet confidence comes from being part of the grind, where ambition was matched by execution at extraordinary scale. For Akash, Jio is not just a telecom giant; it is a technology company built on an indigenous stack, with connectivity as its foundation.
As Jio prepares for what could be India’s , he is stepping into a new role: telling its story to public-market investors alongside his sister, Isha. The stakes are real: Akash must now convince investors he can do more than carry forward his father’s legacy—that he can turn Jio’s extraordinary scale into enduring value for millions of shareholders.
More than 90% of Jio Platforms’ revenue comes from connectivity, and the IPO prospectus groups AI, cloud, enterprise, and content into a single segment, without specific profit-and-loss details. Beyond connectivity, what are the two or three milestones investors can use to judge whether the full-stack and overseas managed services bet is creating incremental returns? How will you report this?
Our message to retail investors is to understand Jio Platforms as a long-term technology and digital services business, which has multiple growth engines. With India’s rapid digitalization and mass adoption of next-gen digital technologies, Jio has a very large and expanding target addressable market in the form of growing mobile data usage, migrating customers to higher-quality digital experiences, expanding home broadband and fixed wireless access, deepening enterprise relationships.
We will be happy to report our progress with the value-added services, and overseas managed services from time-to-time post-listing.
You have stated that this IPO eliminates $3 billion in net debt and that future growth will be funded from about 30% free cash flow. However, 5G utilization is still about one-third, home broadband growth is expanding outside metro areas, and you have parallel ambitions in enterprise AI/cloud and international services. How do you sequence these investments without returning to the equity markets? What explicit guardrails will prevent free cash flow from chasing growth at the expense of returns on new public shareholders’ capital?
Capital discipline is part of how we build. The net-debt-free balance sheet post-IPO will be a great strength for Jio Platforms, with operations generating increasingly higher amounts of free cash flows. Our current and growing free cash flows have already been deleveraging: our net debt to Ebitda came down from 0.88x in FY24 to 0.36x in FY26. Ultimately, the FCF will chase growth and create great value for the new investors joining the Jio family. With strong internal cash flows significantly greater than the investment requirements, we don’t foresee a need to approach equity markets in the near or mid-term.
You mentioned that average revenue per user (Arpu) will grow through additional services rather than solely through tariff hikes, while keeping pricing as an option. Airtel currently maintains a higher Arpu and better retention after tariff hikes. Do you have a concrete plan, along with a timeline, to close that gap through services? Under what conditions would Jio lead, match, or hold off on the next tariff increase?
We grow value per customer by giving people more to do on our network, not only by charging more per gigabyte. At Jio, our objective is to create greater value from our network capabilities for both customers and shareholders. We do not see network monetization as being limited to charging more for every gigabyte of data. Instead, our focus is on offering value-added services that combine connectivity with digital applications and other capabilities. Our customers already use 43.7 GB of data a month on average, and are consuming 333 million digital services subscriptions.
I’d rather not compare us with other operators, as the definition of and business model varies across operators.
We do not have any five-year Arpu target. We believe that revenue growth must be supported by sustainable customer value, not viewed in isolation. Hence, our future offerings will be assessed in the context of customer needs, usage patterns, service quality, and the evolving market.
Mukesh Ambani has indicated that the leadership transition is nearly complete, with you leading technology, Isha overseeing consumer business, and Anant managing energy. How did his mentorship shape the key decisions behind this IPO? What does taking Jio public signify for the family’s future stewardship of Reliance?
The IPO represents an important milestone in Reliance Group’s journey. It brings Jio Platforms into the public markets and gives public-market investors an opportunity to evaluate and participate in the company’s future. We hope the listing will reinforce confidence in India’s technology capabilities and in the opportunities created by the country’s digital transformation.
As regards the IPO process, my father Mr Mukesh Ambani, as well as all the directors on RIL’s board, gave a lot of insights as well as valuable advice. We also have an experienced and capable team of leaders, as well as professional advisors and lead managers, who managed the IPO process extremely well.
Did you actively choose telecom, or was this domain assigned to you among your siblings?
Technology is my passion, and hence, I could relate with telecom and technology businesses pretty well. However, we must note that all three of us are involved in each business together, and always count on each other to back up when needed.
You and Isha have jointly led the global roadshows. How do you divide the digital mandate between yourselves, and what was the experience of pitching Jio together while representing a legacy originating with Dhirubhai Ambani? Was there a specific family principle that influenced how you structured or communicated this listing story?
Jio’s story was already very well-known across the world, and there has long been a high level of interest about Jio’s journey; so, our presentations were extremely well-received. What I take from my grandfather, Dhirubhai Ambani, is respect for every shareholder and generating returns for them.
Through the roadshows, we have had the opportunity to explain Jio Platforms’ business, technology capabilities, financial performance and long-term opportunities to investors from all over the world. Their response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Looking at the institutional interest in the IPO and the record subscription to the anchor book, I’d like to believe that we were able to convey Jio’s story well.
Reflecting from 2016, beginning with early acquisitions and the initial subscriber growth to public market accountability today, what is your most personal reflection at this stage? What do you want this listing to represent for the next generation of the family?
Reliance has a remarkable history of creating opportunities for ordinary Indians to participate in its growth. That relationship is built on trust, long-term thinking and the belief that the benefits of enterprise should extend beyond the company itself.
We are entering the public markets with a responsibility to build a strong, sustainable business and create immense value over time. We are committed to innovation, execution, financial discipline and the transparency expected of a listed company.
For the next generation of Indian builders, I hope it shows that deep technology can be built in India, by Indians, at scale.
Historically, Reliance maintained that telcos can succeed in value-added services, but few global telcos have successfully executed it. Do you share this vision? Between AI/cloud, content, enterprise, and fintech, which two services do you project will deliver the highest return on incremental capital?
At its core, Jio is a digital services company built on the foundation of connectivity. We have built capabilities across 5G and home broadband, cloud, devices, software, entertainment, and enterprise services. These are supported by a proprietary technology stack that Jio has designed, developed, and deployed in-house. This gives us greater control over our services and operations and enables us to offer our customers a value proposition with no parallel in India.
And that is how we built Jio: as a technology company that uses connectivity as its foundation. On it, we have added connectivity, digital services, all on a stack we designed and deployed in-house, with more than 12,000 people in our digital products and technology teams.
Reliance’s response to Elon Musk’s recent public comments on Starlink led to a shift in tone. What facilitated that resolution? Was there direct alignment between Mukesh Ambani and Elon Musk, or between yourself and SpaceX chief Gwynne Shotwell, that established common ground?
Reliance was built to create world-class companies from India. We have done that across all our businesses by delivering unbeatable customer value and operating at world-class efficiency. That is exactly why we welcome competition. It brings out the best in us, and the real winners are India’s consumers.
I would look at this constructively. Once the facts were on the table, there was very little left to disagree about. The government applies the same process to every applicant, Indian or foreign, and Jio’s own satellite services are awaiting clearances too, which was clear and acknowledged.
We have always believed in working with partners across the global technology ecosystem, while staying firmly committed to India’s laws, its regulatory framework and its consumers.