By Chandini Monnappa and Aleef Jahan C S
(Reuters) -Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is planning to take its telecoms and digital arm Jio Platforms public by mid-2026, its chairman said on Friday, one of India's most anticipated listings.
At its annual general meeting on Friday, Reliance also said it was creating an artificial intelligence unit with Alphabet's Google and Meta as strategic partners.
The group's billionaire chairman Mukesh Ambani first flagged plans in 2019 to list Jio within five
years. On Friday he told shareholders at the AGM that Jio is preparing to file for an IPO next year.
Reuters reported exclusively in July that Jio had decided not to launch its planned IPO in 2025. It was valued by analysts at over $100 billion at that time.
Jio is not being fully valued within Reliance's broader petrochemicals and retail portfolio, Saurabh Parikh, senior analyst at ICRA, said, and a separate listing would help unlock higher value for the telecom and digital unit.
Jio Platforms houses India's largest telecom operator, Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has over 500 million users.
Backed by global investors including Meta, Google and KKR, it has been central to Ambani's push to diversify Reliance beyond oil and chemicals into consumer, retail and technology, with AI now a key pillar of its growth strategy.
Reliance and Meta on Friday announced a new AI joint venture with an initial investment of about $100 million. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the AGM the new unit will deliver Meta's open-source AI models to Indian businesses.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also told the AGM his company is partnering with Reliance to use AI across its energy, retail, telecom and financial services businesses, and will establish a Jamnagar Cloud region dedicated to Reliance.
Reliance also outlined five priorities for Jio's next phase of growth, which includes driving an "AI Everywhere for Everyone" push and expanding operations overseas.
(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jan Harvey)
