‘Jio is built to serve the nation’: Read Akash Ambani’s full speech at listing ceremony

Jio Platforms MD Akash Ambani on Wednesday expressed gratitude to Indian and international investors for the strong response to the telecom major’s IPO, which drew demand exceeding Rs 7.5 lakh crore and attracted more than 1.3 crore investors.

He reaffirmed Jio’s commitment to safeguarding and enhancing shareholder wealth while highlighting its next growth priorities, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, connected devices and satellite connectivity.

Here’s his full speech:

“My Most Esteemed Shareholders, Distinguished Guests, Partners and Colleagues at Jio,

Namaste!

Today, I am overwhelmed with emotions. Emotions I cannot express in words.

My heart overflows with gratitude. Gratitude to every individual and every institutional investor, in India and abroad, who made our IPO a blockbuster success.

The response surpassed our imagination, breaking records in every investor category.

We were fully subscribed for India’s largest IPO within 95 minutes, THE FASTEST EVER.

Over 7.5 lac crore of demand – HIGHEST EVER

Over 1.3 crore Indians – HIGHEST EVER trusted us with their wealth

For me this was deeply humbling, and leaves me with a profound sense of responsibility.

After studying abroad, I came home and began my career at Jio, for one reason above all: to work with my father to make India digital.

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In the decade since, we have had the privilege of transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians. What energised us most, day after day, was never the technology but the people it empowered, and still does till date.

A few years ago in a mountainous pocket of Kerala, a young girl named Anjali used to walk two kilometers uphill every single day, not for water or supplies, but just to have data connectivity on her mother’s phone to download her school lessons.

With Jio, that exhausting daily trek ended.

Her home became her classroom. Her smartphone became a portal to infinite knowledge. When we ring the bell today to mark our listing, we remember the millions of Anjalis across India. Our success is measured by the ambitions we encourage and the potential we unlock towards a better India.

When I joined Jio we had no customers, no revenue — just a big idea, and a team who believed every Indian deserved affordable, world-class technology.

I remember the night of 20^th February 2017, when Jio crossed 100 million subscribers.

On a lighter note, my father had said I could not get married until we crossed this milestone, so I had two reasons to celebrate!

But what stayed with me most was our conversation that night. Why stop here? How far could we go? And What was the next frontier? And that was the dream of 500 million customers.

I reflected and learnt an important lesson that I have carried ever since: never let today’s achievement limit tomorrow’s ambition.

Nothing off the shelf was built for India’s scale, so we built our own capabilities from the ground up.

Today, our homegrown platforms serve more than 540 million customers.

To our new family of Jio shareholders — thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Before the IPO, all our subscribers said: ‘JIO MAINE BANAYA’.

Now, I say to every single shareholder: ‘HUM SAB MILKAR NAYA JIO BANAYENGE’.

You have put your trust in Jio. You are Jio’s shareholders. And Jio is now your trust-holder.

As trustees of your wealth, our duty is to protect it and grow it, decade after decade. The only way is by creating disproportionate value for our customers.

What Reliance has done for shareholders for nearly fifty years, Jio will continue to do so for the next fifty.

From this very moment.

With the same dedication.

With the same Dil Ka Rishta with our investors and partners.

Today’s listing as Isha said is not a finish line, but a starting line. We will communicate openly, honour our commitments, and earn your trust through action.

To my parents and all the elders in our family and the larger Reliance family, I say: bless us more.

Aapka aashirvaad hum teenon ki shakti hai!

Aapka guidance poore Jio team ke liye aatmabal hai.

To my father, the three of us have taken the baton from your ever-loving, ever-caring, ever-supporting hands, and will spend our lives proving worthy of it.

We promise to take Jio to greater heights of growth, excellence and reputation, in India and the world.

To my sisters and brothers across our great nation, Bharat:

Jio was built to render Seva to the nation. India needed world-class digital infrastructure and services, affordable to every Indian. Jio has met that need, and always will.

But today marks a new beginning.

And every new beginning has deep roots.

Ours go back to our beloved grandfather, the immortal Dhirubhai Ambani, who blesses us from the heavens above.

My grandfather was a visionary, with a knack for an early rendezvous with the future.

His dream was simple, yet extraordinary: Roti, Kapda, Makaan aur Mobile for every Indian.

My father learnt at his feet, and with Jio, carried that dream into the digital age.

Isha, Anant and I have been fortunate to learn at our father’s feet. Our responsibility is not merely to preserve what we inherited, but to make Jio bigger, better and more meaningful for India.

India is a nation of 1.5 billion aspirations, and Jio understands them because we grew alongside them.

In our first ten years, we democratised data, bringing hundreds of millions into digital life.

In our next ten, we want to democratise every technology that can transform Indian lives: AI, Cloud, Connected devices, Connectivity even from space, and Digital services not yet imagined.

I believe technology should never be an end in itself. Its true value lies in the opportunities it creates, the barriers it removes and the lives it improves.

Our ambition is a truly digital society, with Jio Platforms at its core: one where connectivity, computing and intelligence work seamlessly together, and every Indian, in every corner and every language, can participate, progress and prosper.

And we must be world-class in our technology, service, execution and standards.

Esteemed investors and friends, what Jio engineers, innovators and professionals have built… is proudly Made in India and Made for India. It is Atmanirbharta in action.

Working with this team has been the most enriching journey of my life. Two things unite people like nothing else: a shared mission and camaraderie. We had both. We dared to dream big and stood by one another. To the entire Jio team: thank you for making this dream your own.

Ten years ago, the world largely saw India as a market for technology. Today, India is emerging as its creator. The response from investors around the world in recent weeks reflects their confidence in India’s potential under the leadership of our beloved Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji.

We are now ready to take the Tricolour global. My dream is that one day, when the world counts its great technology companies, one of them will be called Jio Platforms Limited.

Our promise to India: we will keep building, innovating and pushing boundaries until that dream comes true.

Before I conclude, a few words of thanks.

To my mother and my father — earning your trust and respect is what Isha, Anant and I hold dearest.

To Isha and Anant, to be on this journey together is what inspires me everyday.

To my wife, Shloka — thank you for being my rock and my strength, and giving me my life’s greatest gifts in Prithvi and Veda.

To Manoj Uncle, my mentor — thank you for your guidance, and for always being my safety net.

To our Board of Directors and existing shareholders — thank you for your wisdom, your counsel, and your faith in the vision we are building together. Your guidance has been invaluable in bringing us to this moment.

We also want to thank SEBI, NSE, BSE and every institution that stood with us through this IPO.

And finally, to our two most important stakeholders — our customers and our shareholders — I want to make one promise.

We will keep earning your trust. We will keep creating value. Every single day.

Because the two are inseparable. When we create greater value for our customers, we build a stronger business. And when we build a stronger business, we create enduring value for our shareholders.

That is my commitment. Not just for today. Not just for this IPO. But for every day that lies ahead. I have never been more excited about the journey ahead.

Thank you.

Jai Hind!”

(Disclosure: Firstpost is a part of the Network18 Group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)