Akash Ambani, the eldest son of Mukesh Ambani, is set to take centre stage as the telecoms and digital arm of the Reliance group nears a stock market debut. The family controls the oil-to-retail Reliance empire and is described as Asia’s richest.
Akash, who turned 35 on Friday, is managing director of Jio Platforms. Its $3.2 billion initial public offering was fully subscribed within two hours of opening for public bidding this week, which the report calls a rare achievement for an Indian offering of this size.
Akash takes the lead at Jio’s listing event
Although Mukesh Ambani still chairs the holding company Jio Platforms, Akash was named chairman of the telecoms unit in 2022. The move was widely seen as part of the billionaire’s succession planning.
Akash showed his growing influence last week when he led the pitch at the IPO event. He briefed investors on the company’s 533 million customers and its profit margins. His twin sister shared the stage, but their father did not attend.
“I’m here as a representative of the entire company,” he said.
Industry executives who work with him describe him as approachable and deeply involved in technology. He weighs in on what one executive called “some of the bigger calls”, but he does not interfere in day-to-day business decisions. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brown University in the United States, is an avid sports enthusiast and plays a key role in managing an Indian Premier League cricket franchise. He married in 2019 and has two children.
Investor ties and strong demand for the offer
Akash handles relationships with the company’s most prominent investors, including Meta, according to one executive who has worked closely on the IPO. That executive said he is the person who speaks directly with the Meta chief.
“He is the one who makes the calls to Mark Zuckerberg,” the executive added.
Meta holds a near 10% stake and is among Jio’s largest shareholders. In 2020 it joined Google and other global investors in investing 1.52 trillion rupees, which was worth $20.5 billion at the time.
The executive said Akash and his father, both night owls, manage investor relations separately. Mukesh is closer to many sovereign wealth funds, while Akash has taken on the role of Reliance’s Silicon Valley contact. Reliance and Meta did not respond to queries on the matter.
By Thursday, the retail portion of the IPO was fully subscribed. The employee quota drew bids for nearly twice the shares on offer, and the quota for existing Reliance shareholders was 2.58 times subscribed, exchange data showed.
That enthusiasm from small investors recalls how Akash’s grandfather, Dhirubhai Ambani, built the Reliance brand with shareholders. Dhirubhai, who died in 2002, held large shareholder meetings on open grounds in Mumbai in the 1980s. At last week’s event, a garlanded portrait of him smiling sat on an easel while the screen showed black-and-white photos of those old gatherings.
The conglomerate’s listed Mumbai shares have a current market capitalisation of $172 billion. They have risen 330-fold since 1990.
Jio’s push beyond telecoms into AI and digital services
Jio’s telecoms business launched in 2016 and disrupted the market by offering free voice and data. Based on customers in a single country, its more than 500 million users are second only to China Mobile.
Jio Platforms says Akash leads its long-term strategic roadmap to transform connectivity and digital services in India, moving from 4G to 5G and now to AI. The company also offers apps, digital services and home devices. Telecoms still generates nearly 90% of its $15.45 billion revenue and around 94% of its profit.
The first line of the company overview in its prospectus states, “We are a technology platform.” Asked about rivalry with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, Akash told a business newspaper recently that “Jio is not just a telco”, describing it instead as a digital services company built on connectivity.
At last week’s event, he talked up plans to offer AI-powered call summaries and transcription in 12 Indian languages to Jio’s users. “We’re the only play in town that can do that,” he said.
“What we have is an innate understanding of our Jio customers,” he said.
