For most of the past decade, the assets that keep India connected were built, owned and funded privately by conglomerates, private equity and global strategic investors. However, today, a wave of planned listings is about to bring India’s telecom and data centre infrastructure into public ownership (partially at least) and with it, a new class of investor into one of the most consequential buildouts in the country’s economic history.

Jio: The listing set to rewrite the record books

In 2025, Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani reaffirmed that Jio is preparing to list within the next fiscal year, with investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Citi floating bullish valuations placing Jio among the top five most valuable listed entities in India, once public. A consortium of 17 banks has been appointed to manage the issue, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JM Financial, HSBC, Bank of America and Citigroup.

The structure, too, has evolved. Reliance Industries has restructured the Jio initial public offering (IPO) from an offer for sale to a fully fresh issue after disagreements with the existing investors over pricing made the original plan unworkable. Under the revised approach, all proceeds flow to Jio Platforms directly, and existing investor stakes dilute proportionally. Strategic investors Google, which holds 7.75 per cent, and Meta, with a 9.99 per cent stake, are expected to retain their investments, while private equity investors such as KKR, TPG, Silver Lake and Vista Partners are likely to trim their holdings.

The IPO valuation is expected to be in the range of $180 billion, with the company expected to raise around $4 billion by offering a 2.5 per cent stake, which would make this the largest IPO in Indian history, surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s $3.3 billion raise in October 2024.

The timing, however, has become subject to external forces. Rising tensions in West Asia and a risk-off stance from foreign institutional investors led to a double-digit drawdown in Indian indices in March 2026, prompting caution around launching a record-size IPO. Further, the conflict has particularly complicated procedural steps for certain Middle Eastern investors, including board-level approvals.

Sify planning India’s first pure-play data centre listing

While all eyes are on Jio, the more immediately actionable listing in India’s digital infrastructure space belongs to Sify. Sify Infinit Spaces, the data centre subsidiary of Sify Technologies, plans to file for a $500 million IPO, making it the first pure-play Indian data centre operator to list on domestic stock exchanges. The proposed IPO, which the company’s board approved on 25 September 2025, includes both new and existing shares, with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, CITIC Securities and JM Financial acting as bookrunners.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved the IPO of Sify Infinit Spaces on January 23, 2026, and the approval is valid for 12 months. The Rs 37 billion issue comprises a fresh issue of Rs 25 billion and an offer for sale of Rs 12 billion, proposed for listing on both the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Proceeds will provide Rs 4.65 billion in funding for the completion of Tower B at the Siruseri, Chennai, data centre; Rs 8.6 billion for Towers 11 and 12 at Rabale, Navi Mumbai; and Rs 6 billion for debt repayment or prepayment.

Yotta, STT GDC and CtrlS also lining up

Sify’s listing, upon being priced, will open a door that several others are waiting to walk through. Mumbai-based Yotta Data Services is preparing for a listing on Indian bourses in 2026-27, capitalising on the country’s growing AI technology sector.

The company’s chief executive officer cited India’s push for home-grown AI, including the IndiaAI Mission, as a key reason for targeting a domestic listing. Yotta is aiming to raise up to $900 million, targeting a valuation of close to $6 billion, with a potential $300 million pre-IPO funding round under consideration. Backed by the Hiranandani Group, Yotta has built some of India’s largest hyperscale campuses and is expanding aggressively into AI compute, including GPU-intensive infrastructure powered by NVIDIA.

STT Global Data Centres is also lining up for a listing that could raise up to $500 million, with the offering expected to value the company between $5 billion and $5.5 billion. Mandates are expected to be awarded imminently, and the listing could occur in late 2026 or early 2027. Moreover, CtrlS has announced its intent to raise funds publicly to support a $2 billion capex plan.

What this wave means

Taken together, the Jio IPO and the data centre listing pipeline represent something new for Indian capital markets – digital infrastructure at genuine scale, available for public investment.

However, the caveats are real. Geopolitical volatility has already pushed Jio’s listing window back. Several data centre operators carry significant debt alongside their expansion ambitions. The question of which banks land the mandate, and at what valuation the book will clear, remains open; and whether these IPOs actually arrive in 2026 or slip into the first half of 2027 is a question the market will settle. But the direction is unambiguous. India’s digital infrastructure is moving from private balance sheets to public ownership, and the listings coming over the next 18 months will define what that means for investors, for the sector and for India’s ambition to become a global hub for AI and cloud infrastructure.

Kuhu Singh