India’s Two Biggest IPOs Ever Are Coming Together: Inside the NSE and Reliance Jio Listings of 2026

Meta Description: NSE and Reliance Jio’s 2026 IPOs could reshape India’s markets, adding up to ₹20 lakh crore in value. Here’s what investors need to know.

The Short Answer: What’s Actually Happening Right Now

If you’ve been even half-paying attention to Indian financial news this month, you’ve noticed something unusual: two of the most-anticipated listings in the country’s history are converging on the same calendar window.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) — the institution that runs India’s stock market — filed its draft paperwork to go public itself, something investors have waited nearly a decade for. According to Kotak Neo’s coverage of the DRHP filing, NSE has formally filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI, reviving a listing plan delayed for nearly a decade, with the exchange potentially valued at around ₹5 trillion — possibly India’s largest-ever IPO. At nearly the same time, Reliance Industries is holding its Annual General Meeting on June 19, 2026, where everyone expects Mukesh Ambani to finally give a clear update on the Jio Platforms IPO — long pitched as the listing that could eclipse every other Indian IPO on record.

I’ll be straight with you: a few of the numbers floating around in headlines and social media are already slightly out of date or oversimplified. So this guide does two things. First, it lays out what’s confirmed, what’s still speculative, and where the two deals actually stand as of this week. Second, it explains why this moment matters for your portfolio, even if you never plan to buy a single share of either company.

Quick definitions if you’re new to this: An IPO (Initial Public Offering) is when a private company sells shares to the public for the first time. An OFS (Offer for Sale) means existing shareholders are selling their stake — the company itself doesn’t get any new money. A fresh issue means the company is creating and selling brand-new shares, and the cash goes straight onto its own balance sheet.

1. NSE’s IPO: The Exchange That Runs the Market Is Finally Joining It

There’s something almost poetic about this one. NSE has spent over 30 years deciding which other companies get to list on its platform. Per Kotak Neo’s NSE IPO tracker, NSE oversees securities with a combined market capitalisation of over ₹460 lakh crore as of early 2026, providing trading, clearing, settlement, indexing, and market data services across asset classes. And yet, NSE itself has never been a publicly traded company — until now, possibly.

What Took So Long?

If you’ve followed Indian markets for a while, you’ll remember NSE first tried this in 2016. The process got derailed by a long-running regulatory dispute tied to the exchange’s co-location facility — essentially, allegations that certain high-frequency trading firms got unfair, faster access to market data. That scandal froze the IPO for nearly ten years.

As Sahi’s NSE IPO explainer notes, the narrative changed meaningfully in January 2026, when reports indicated NSE had secured a key regulatory clearance. Specifically, a Multibagg AI analysis of the DRHP timeline reports that SEBI issued NSE a No-Objection Certificate on January 30, 2026 — described as clearing regulatory hurdles that had delayed the listing for nearly a decade — followed by NSE’s board formally approving the IPO plan on February 6, 2026.

From there, things moved with surprising speed for an institution that had been stuck for a decade:

How Big Is the NSE IPO, Really?

This is where you need to be careful, because early estimates and final filing details don’t always match. Here’s the most current picture, based on Univest’s market analysis of the BSE share price reaction to NSE’s DRHP filing:

• Structure: A pure Offer for Sale. Per the Kotak Neo DRHP report, no fresh shares will be issued by NSE — existing shareholders are selling approximately 148.9 million equity shares, representing nearly 6% of outstanding equity.
• Size: Most recent reporting converges on a Rs 21,000-25,000 crore IPO, with NSE valued at Rs 4.7-6 lakh crore, according to Univest’s coverage.
• Who’s selling: Major institutional shareholders are using this as an exit opportunity, including SBI, Bank of Baroda, and several sovereign and pension funds. One detail worth flagging from UnlistedZone’s deep-dive on NSE’s valuation and financials: LIC, NSE’s single largest shareholder at roughly 10.7%, has reportedly chosen not to sell in this round — a signal that India’s largest insurer still sees more room for NSE’s value to grow.

From a markets-watching standpoint, here’s the part that should genuinely surprise you: NSE’s own recent financial performance hasn’t been a straight line up. The UnlistedZone analysis flags that FY26 revenue and profit were actually down compared to FY25 — a direct result of SEBI’s curbs on futures and options trading volumes. That’s an important reality check before you get swept up in IPO hype: even India’s dominant exchange isn’t immune to regulatory headwinds that can dent its own bottom line. Compare that to BSE, which the same analysis notes currently trades at roughly 65x earnings, against an implied 35-40x for NSE at the rumored issue size — meaning the market may already be pricing in NSE’s slower current growth, even at a discount.

What Does This Mean If You’re a Retail Investor?

If you’ve never been able to buy NSE shares because they only traded in the relatively illiquid “unlisted” or grey market, this IPO is your first real shot at owning a piece of the institution behind India’s daily trading volume. But go in with eyes open: a flat or declining earnings year right before listing is not the fairy-tale setup IPO marketing usually implies. Do your own diligence on pricing once the price band is announced, rather than anchoring to the inflated unlisted-market valuations that have circulated for years.

2. Reliance Jio Platforms: From “Pure OFS” to a More Complicated Story

This is the IPO most of India has been waiting for since 2019, when Mukesh Ambani first mentioned plans to eventually list Jio. Per Business Standard’s report on the Jio IPO consideration, Jio Platforms is the parent of Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator with more than 500 million users. Its growth story is genuinely remarkable — according to Kotak Neo’s Jio IPO tracker, India crossed the 1 billion internet user mark in November 2025, with Jio as the single biggest driver of that shift since its 2016 launch.

Here’s Where the Story Has Actually Changed Recently

Most blog posts and headlines you’ve seen probably describe this as a clean Offer for Sale where existing investors — Meta, Google, KKR, sovereign wealth funds like ADIA and Mubadala — simply trim their stakes. That was the plan as recently as March 2026. But it’s worth being transparent that the structure appears to be shifting:

According to a Business Today report citing ET Now, the earlier plan had been to launch the listing through an offer for sale, with each of Jio’s 14 equity investors paring 8-8.5% of their holdings for nearly 2.8% equity dilution — but the structure is now being reworked towards a fully fresh issue.

That’s a meaningful pivot. A fresh issue means actual new capital lands on Jio’s balance sheet rather than just changing hands between investors. The same Business Today report notes that under the fresh issue route, around Rs 25,000 crore could reportedly be used to repay debt, with remaining funds deployed for other needs.

Why the change? Per that reporting, shareholders wanted a higher price band, while Reliance was wary of pricing too aggressively and leaving little upside for retail investors after listing — and a higher-priced OFS offer could also be harder for the market to absorb than a fresh issue priced post-listing.

The Valuation Range Is Genuinely Wide — Here’s Why

You’ll see wildly different numbers depending on which source you read, and that’s not because anyone is wrong — it’s because different banks are using different methodologies and time horizons:

The NiftyTrader piece is worth a closer look here — it cites Elara Capital’s June 10, 2026 research note valuing Jio Platforms at roughly ₹13-14 lakh crore based on 13x FY28 estimated EV/EBITDA, projecting 11% revenue CAGR and 14% EBITDA CAGR through FY29. That’s a more conservative, fundamentals-driven number than the headline $180 billion figure that gets quoted most often — worth remembering the next time you see that number presented as settled fact.

The Numbers Behind the Hype

It’s easy to get lost in valuation debates and forget that Jio is genuinely one of the largest, fastest-growing businesses in the country. The Business Today AGM preview reports:

• Jio’s FY26 revenue and EBITDA came in at Rs 1.76 lakh crore and Rs 76,600 crore respectively, up 14.3% year-on-year
• Q4 FY26 operating revenue rose 13% year-on-year to Rs 44,928 crore, with ARPU at Rs 214, supported by stronger 5G adoption and broadband momentum
• Data consumption hit 42.3 GB per capita per month, with overall data traffic up roughly 35% year-on-year

What to Watch on June 19

Per Business Today’s AGM date confirmation, Reliance Industries will hold its 49th AGM on Friday, June 19, 2026, at 2 PM IST, conducted virtually through JioEvents. This is genuinely the moment most India-focused investors are circling on their calendars right now. The same outlet’s earlier AGM preview notes that the biggest area of investor interest is expected to be Jio Platforms, with Reliance continuing to work through the IPO structure, possibly opting for a larger fresh issue rather than relying heavily on the offer-for-sale route.

One nuance most retail investors miss: taking Jio public doesn’t just affect Jio’s valuation. According to Multibagg AI’s analysis of the Jio IPO, it would effectively transition Reliance Industries into a holding company for its various businesses, which could attract a holding-company valuation discount of 5-20% from the market. If you hold RIL stock directly, that’s a real consideration, not just a theoretical one.

3. Why Both IPOs Happening Together Is a Bigger Deal Than Either One Alone

Here’s the thing that I think gets lost in the day-to-day headline chasing: it’s not really about NSE or Jio individually. It’s about what happens when India’s IPO market gets two anchor-tenant listings in the same calendar window after a genuinely slow start to the year.

The Multibagg AI analysis cited above notes that India’s primary markets had a relatively subdued start to 2026 after two record-breaking years. A successful run from NSE and Jio wouldn’t just be two good IPOs — it would function as a confidence reset for the entire pipeline of companies waiting in the wings to list.

How This Stacks Up Against Past Mega-IPOs

To put the scale in perspective, here’s how India’s biggest listings to date compare, with the Hyundai figure drawn from Reuters’ reporting via Business Standard:

If both deals land anywhere close to current estimates, NSE alone could match or exceed Hyundai’s record, and Jio could comfortably surpass it — making 2026 the year India’s IPO record book gets rewritten twice in the same few months.

From Working With Investors on IPO Allocation Strategy

A pattern I’ve seen play out in every mega-IPO cycle, from Paytm to LIC to Hyundai: retail enthusiasm tends to peak right around the DRHP filing and AGM headline moments — exactly the news cycle we’re in right now with NSE and Jio. That enthusiasm is usually highest before the price band and final financials are actually disclosed. The investors who do well aren’t the ones who get most excited at the headline stage; they’re the ones who wait for the red herring prospectus, read the risk factors section closely (it’s usually the most honest part of the document), and compare the IPO price to listed peers before deciding.

With NSE, that peer comparison is BSE. With Jio, depending on the segment, it’s Bharti Airtel for telecom and possibly Reliance Industries itself for the broader digital ecosystem.

Before vs. After: What Changes If Both IPOs Succeed

Pros and Cons for Retail Investors Considering Either IPO

NSE — Pros:

• First-ever access to India’s dominant exchange as a listed stock
• Extremely high profit margins historically (PAT margin near 63%)
• Strong institutional backing and brand trust

NSE — Cons:

• FY26 revenue and profit actually declined versus FY25
• Heavily exposed to regulatory risk (SEBI F&O curbs already bit once)
• Valuation already inflated in the unlisted market before the IPO even prices

Jio Platforms — Pros:

• Exposure to India’s largest digital/telecom growth story
• Strong, consistent double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth
• Backed by globally respected co-investors (Google, Meta, KKR)

Jio Platforms — Cons:

• Final structure (OFS vs. fresh issue) is still not locked down
• Valuation estimates span an unusually wide $130B–$240B range
• Possible holding-company discount risk for those holding RIL shares directly

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the NSE IPO confirmed, or still speculative?

It’s confirmed to the extent that the DRHP has been filed and the IPO Committee is active, but the final price band, exact issue size, and listing date are still pending SEBI’s review process. A listing before December 2026 is the current target.

Why is NSE listing on BSE instead of its own platform?

Because a stock exchange cannot list on itself — it would create an obvious conflict of interest in self-regulation and trading oversight. NSE will debut on BSE, its smaller rival exchange.

Will the Jio IPO be an Offer for Sale or a fresh issue?

As of the most recent reporting, Reliance appears to be shifting away from a pure OFS toward a fresh issue structure, which would direct new capital onto Jio’s own balance sheet, partly for debt repayment. This hasn’t been finalized publicly as of this AGM.

How much could the NSE and Jio IPOs add to India’s total market capitalization?

Combined, market commentary has suggested a potential addition in the range of ₹18-20 lakh crore to India’s overall listed market cap, though this depends heavily on final pricing for both issues.

Is LIC selling its NSE shares in this IPO?

According to recent reporting, no — LIC, NSE’s largest shareholder, is reportedly not part of the selling-shareholder list in this round, even though it’s eligible to participate.

What’s the risk of buying RIL shares ahead of the Jio IPO?

The main structural risk is the “holding company discount” — once Jio is a separately listed entity, RIL’s stock may trade at a 5-20% valuation discount to the simple sum of its parts, a pattern common with conglomerates globally.

How does the NSE IPO compare to past record-setters like Hyundai or LIC?

At an estimated ₹21,000-25,000 crore, NSE’s IPO is positioned to be comparable to or larger than Hyundai Motor India’s 2024 listing, which currently holds the record at roughly ₹27,000 crore.

Should I apply for both IPOs as a retail investor?

That depends entirely on your risk tolerance, time horizon, and whether the eventual price band offers reasonable value relative to peers — this isn’t something a blog post can answer for your specific situation, and it’s worth discussing with a SEBI-registered financial advisor before applying.

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The Bottom Line

Here’s what I’d want a friend to know if they only had two minutes: NSE and Jio aren’t just two big IPOs happening to land near each other on the calendar. They’re a real test of whether India’s capital markets can absorb genuinely massive deals back-to-back after a sluggish start to 2026 — and whether retail investors will get fair pricing or get left holding inflated unlisted-market expectations.

Don’t let the headline valuation numbers — $180 billion here, ₹5 trillion there — do your thinking for you. Wait for the actual price bands. Read the risk factors. Compare against listed peers like BSE and Bharti Airtel before deciding where your money goes.

If you found this breakdown useful, consider subscribing to our newsletter for IPO price-band alerts the moment NSE and Jio’s final prospectuses drop, and check out our related guide on how to evaluate IPO valuations like a professional analyst. Got questions about either listing? Drop them in the comments — I read and respond to every one.