Reliance Jio Infocomm could file draft papers for its expected $4 billion initial public offering (IPO) within days and just before Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani’s annual speech to shareholders on Friday, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

The FT said Ambani had told shareholders last year that the telecom company’s IPO would come in the first half of 2026, but that timeline was missed. The annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance is scheduled on Friday, June 19.

The report added that the process could still begin this year, with the delay possibly linked to tepid equity markets in India amid the war between the United States and Israel. According to the report, Jio’s listing is not the only one to have been delayed from earlier plans. Jio has ventured into 5G, JioFiber, JioAirFiber and AI and cloud services.

The timing is significant because Reliance annual general meetings have often been used to announce major consumer, digital and investment plans. A possible Jio IPO would be more than a telecom listing, as it would also serve as a public market test of Reliance’s wider digital ecosystem, including connectivity, devices, apps, payments, cloud services and entertainment distribution.

Jio reshaped India’s telecom market after its commercial launch in 2016 through low-priced data plans and an aggressive 4G rollout that helped it scale quickly. It later became a key part of Reliance Industries’ consumer strategy, with operations spanning mobile data, broadband, enterprise connectivity and digital content access.

Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, houses Jio’s telecom network, which has more than 500 million subscribers, along with broadband services, enterprise cloud, digital content platforms and AI infrastructure. In 2020, Jio Platforms raised Rs 1,52,056 crore from global technology and investment firms including Meta, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG and L Catterton at an approximate valuation of Rs 4.9 lakh crore. 

The proposed IPO is expected to be a 100 per cent fresh issue after Reliance switched from an offer-for-sale (OFS) structure in March 2026. That means the proceeds would go directly into Jio’s business for debt repayment and capital expenditure on AI infrastructure and network expansion.

A regulatory change also helped clear the path, which allowed companies valued above Rs 5 lakh crore to list with a 2.5% public float instead of the earlier 10% minimum, making the DRHP process for Jio Platforms more manageable at such a valuation. The listing is expected to put a transparent public market value on Reliance’s digital assets for the first time.

Some reports have valued Jio at Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore in sum-of-parts models, while a public listing confirmation of more than $130 billion, or over Rs 11 lakh crore, could lead to a re-rating of Reliance Industries. Retail shareholders of Reliance Industries are expected to get a shareholder quota in the IPO, in line with the structure seen in some large parent-subsidiary listings in India.