Is India the world’s hot trade again?

India doesn’t really ✌️do✌️ small. Weddings run for days, cricket matches shut down cities, and a quick “drop by for tea” quickly becomes a full-blown buffet.

So naturally when the country’s tech-and-telco juggernaut, with more users than the entire population of South America, decides to go public? Yeah it’s a big deal.

Here’s what you need to know: 

Jio Platforms, India’s biggest mobile network, just absolutely cannon-balled onto India’s two main stock exchanges (National and Bombay), soaking us spectators with four points of intrigue, starting with… 

1. It’s India’s biggest-ever 

Raising a cool $3.2B, Jio’s offering has now officially leapfrogged Hyundai India’s 2024 record ($2.9B) to become India’s biggest-ever IPO.

Institutional and retail investors alike both frothed at the chance to get a slice: the institutional tranche was gone in 10 minutes, while the public maxed out its shares in 90, driving an overall oversubscription rate of 3.13x on Day 1 — that’s a rare threshold and speed combo, signalling intense FOMO.

Why the rush? The firm’s 2016-era bet on ultra-cheap data plans has earned it 530 million customers, meaning it now manages ~60% of India’s entire data traffic. 

That’s why the giant is now aiming for a ~$110B valuation when shares start trading on 28 October, making it one of India’s biggest companies by market cap.

We also couldn’t help but notice…

2. The mixed signals 

It’s a wild time for India’s markets. You’ve got the flagship Nifty 50 benchmark recently posting eight straight weeks in the red, its longest loss streak in a quarter century. But then Jio comes along and smashes records, just a month after the National Stock Exchange itself listed (on rival Bombay) at a sectoral record $47B market cap!

What — and we cannot stress this enough — is going on?

International investors have become uneasy at India’s eye-watering valuations, heavy oil import reliance, and the pull of rising US yields. That’s why they’ve dumped ~$27B in Indian equities this year alone.

But you know what can get everyone excited again? A digital monopoly backed by Silicon Valley, controlled by India’s richest family, and practically woven into India’s DNA, both political (PM Modi attended the son’s mega-wedding in 2024) and economic (the broader family conglomerate spans every major sector).

And that might explain some of the ritzy names among…

3. The investors

It’s now a veritable Davos VIP lounge right there on the cap table, featuring everyone from BlackRock and JPMorgan to Google and Meta and even the sovereign funds of Singapore, Norway, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar.

When you get Wall Street and Silicon Valley and Gulf monarchies all in such furious agreement, they’re probably sniffing out a) one of the emerging world’s few indispensable growth stories right now, protected by b) a moat (monopolistic, political, technological) too wide for any cyclical jitters to meaningfully cross.

And as we’ve flagged above, a big part of that impenetrable moat is thanks to…

4. The dynasty

It’s all controlled by the squillionaire Ambani family that somehow started in 1958 with a small textile firm. Fast forward six decades and they’re now controlling an empire worth a third of a trillion dollars, or ~8% of India’s entire GDP.

That’s how Jio’s boss (Mukesh) can afford Antilia, his $2B, 27-story Mumbai residence with three helipads, a 168-car garage, and 600 staff (for a family of five).

It’s also how he could afford to throw a $600M wedding for his son, rocking an absolute ‘French Laundry’ guestlist of Kardashians, Trumps, Blairs, Zuckerbergs, and Gates (singular). Annoyingly even FIFA’s Infantino somehow scored an invite; dude is like a power Beetlejuice.

So you can see why some (including Elon Musk) have publicly wondered who holds more power in India: the sitting PM or the Ambanis.

But don’t expect Mukesh to take a victory lap: he’s already pouring billions straight into AI data centres (via a giant Nvidia partnership), ensuring that whenever India’s 1.4 billion shop, stream, or prompt, an Ambani server gets a slice.

Sound even smarter:

• Delhi has denied Elon Musk’s allegations that it’s slow-walking Starlink’s approvals under pressure from Jio’s Mukesh Ambani. 

• Watch Jio’s stock price in the coming weeks: a 2024 study suggests retail investors typically sell 50% of their shares within a month from listing.