Jio's $3.2 Billion IPO Sold Out in Hours While Firmus Collapsed

India's biggest IPO ever got fully covered before the first trading day closed on October 21. The same month, an A$44 billion AI data center listing in Australia couldn't find buyers at half its marketed price.

Jio Platforms Ltd, the digital arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, drew bids covering 1.51 times the shares on offer by the end of day one, according to live bidding data tracked by Upstox and India Infoline. The ₹30,213 crore issue — roughly $3.2 billion at the top of its ₹1,065-to-₹1,119 per share price band — closed its first session with the book done. Retail investors have until October 23 to subscribe, and the company is targeting a listing date of October 28.

Who's actually buying?

The headline 1.51x figure hides a sharply lopsided book. The categories tell two different stories:

• Qualified institutional buyers — mutual funds, insurers and foreign portfolio managers with first crack at half the issue — bid 4.13 times their allocation by day one's close.
• Retail investors, holding a reserved 35% of the net issue, filled just 0.44 times their quota.
• The employee quota sat at 0.95 times.

Big money showed up instantly. Everyday investors are still deciding.

That institutional appetite didn't start on October 21. Anchor investors, who bid before the public issue opens, put in close to $25 billion worth of orders against an ₹8,110 crore anchor allocation, according to Reuters — a figure cited elsewhere as roughly 30 times the quota on offer. BlackRock, Fidelity, GIC, Capital Group, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton and Invesco all took anchor allocations. By Sunday night, the grey market premium on Jio Platforms shares had climbed to around ₹250, about 22% above the top of the official price band, according to IIFL's tracking.

Where does the money go?

Jio Platforms isn't just a telecom carrier anymore. It houses Reliance Jio's wireless network along with the group's digital services businesses. Of the ₹30,213 crore raised, ₹27,500 crore goes straight to paying down debt at Reliance Jio Infocomm, the operating subsidiary. Existing Reliance shareholders get a dedicated ₹2,500 crore reservation in the offer; employees get ₹500 crore set aside.

Reliance Industries keeps a 66.43% stake after the sale. Meta and Google, each holding stakes from 2020 pandemic-era investments, now watch a public market finally price the asset they bought into.

What happened to Firmus?

Compare that with Firmus, the Nvidia-backed Australian data center operator. It sought to raise up to US$5.5 billion through an Australian listing that would have valued the company at about A$44 billion, or US$30 billion — just months after private markets valued it at US$10.5 billion. The order book came in thin. Bankers tested prices below the marketed A$11 a share, including A$9 and as low as A$5.50, and still couldn't find enough large buyers. Firmus scrapped the IPO within 48 hours and began exploring a private funding round instead, according to Forbes Australia and Bloomberg.

Two companies, both leaning on the AI and digital infrastructure story, both chasing public money in the same month. One got buried in demand. The other couldn't clear a halved price tag.

What does the gap actually signal?

The divergence doesn't show investors going cold on AI infrastructure broadly. Jio Platforms carries real, current revenue from hundreds of millions of paying subscribers and an operating telecom network. Firmus was selling a build-out — a bet on future data center capacity tied to Nvidia's hardware roadmap, with little operating history to point to. When markets get nervous about stretched AI valuations, a backdrop multiple outlets including Bloomberg Government flagged around Firmus's collapse, the money doesn't flee the sector. It gets more selective about what inside the sector it's willing to pay for.

The 0.44 times retail subscription suggests plenty of Indian households are still weighing a price band that already carries a ₹250 grey market premium. The institutions made their decision before the retail window even opened — and that split is the number to watch when the stock hits the tape on October 28.

By Grace Kim