Reliance Industries Limited

What does Reliance Industries own?

Reliance Industries owns four primary business segments: Oil to Chemicals (including the Jamnagar refinery, one of the world's largest, with FY2025-26 revenue of ₹6,62,401 crore), Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (including the KG-D6 block), Retail (through Reliance Retail, India's largest retailer with 20,000+ stores, operating Reliance Fresh, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trends, and JioMart), and Digital Services (through Jio Platforms, including Jio telecommunications with 524 million subscribers, JioCinema, JioSaavn, and JioAirFiber).

Is Reliance Industries publicly traded?

Yes, Reliance Industries Limited is listed on both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India under ticker RELIANCE. The company has been publicly listed since 1977. The Ambani family holds approximately 50% of Reliance's shares through various holding companies and trusts, giving them effective control. The remaining shares are held by institutional investors and public shareholders. Jio Platforms also has minority shareholders including Meta, Google, and other global investors.

Who founded Reliance Industries?

Reliance Industries was founded by Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani in 1966 in Mumbai, India, initially as a trading company. Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance into one of India's largest industrial conglomerates through investments in textiles, petrochemicals, and refining. He died in July 2002. His son Mukesh Ambani subsequently became Chairman and Managing Director and has led the company's expansion into retail and digital services.

What is Reliance's revenue?

For FY2025-26 (ended March 31, 2026), Reliance reported consolidated revenue of ₹11,75,919 crore ($124.0 billion), up 9.8% year over year. EBITDA was ₹207,911 crore ($21.9 billion), up 13.4%, and net profit was ₹95,754 crore ($10.1 billion), up 17.8%. The company announced a dividend of ₹6 per share. Capital expenditure for the year was ₹144,271 crore ($15.2 billion).

How many subscribers does Jio have?

Jio had over 524 million total subscribers as of March 2026, including 268 million 5G mobility subscribers. Jio is also the largest fixed wireless access operator globally, with approximately 13 million premises connected by JioAirFiber. Jio carried over 241 exabytes of data traffic during FY2025-26. Jio Platforms generated FY2025-26 revenue of ₹1,76,164 crore ($18.6 billion), up 14.3%, with EBITDA of ₹76,560 crore ($8.1 billion).

How many stores does Reliance Retail operate?

Reliance Retail operates over 20,000 stores across India as of March 2026. The business has 387 million registered customers and processed 1.93 billion transactions in FY2025-26. Reliance Retail generated gross revenue of ₹3,71,085 crore ($39.1 billion) in FY2025-26, up 12.1% year over year, with EBITDA of ₹27,034 crore ($2.9 billion). The business has entered strategic brand partnerships with Stella McCartney, Kurt Geiger, Max and Co, and Fabletics.

Who owns Reliance Industries?

Reliance Industries Limited is publicly traded on the BSE and NSE, but the Ambani family holds approximately 50% of the company's shares through various holding companies and trusts, giving them effective control. Mukesh Ambani, son of founder Dhirubhai Ambani, serves as Chairman and Managing Director. The remaining approximately 50% of shares are held by institutional investors and public shareholders. Jio Platforms has minority shareholders including Meta, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and Intel.

Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani founded Reliance Commercial Corporation in 1966 in Mumbai, India, initially as a trading company dealing in spices and polyester yarn. Dhirubhai Ambani had previously worked as a clerk in Aden, Yemen, and returned to India with limited capital but significant entrepreneurial ambition.

Reliance expanded into polyester manufacturing in the 1970s, establishing a textile mill in Naroda, Gujarat. The company's Vimal brand of polyester fabric became one of India's most recognized consumer brands in the 1970s and 1980s. Dhirubhai Ambani was a pioneer in accessing Indian capital markets, conducting some of India's first large public share offerings and building a shareholder base of millions of small investors.

Reliance went public in 1977, listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company's share offerings were notable for their scale and for the broad participation of retail investors, many of whom became wealthy as Reliance's share price appreciated over subsequent decades.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Reliance expanded aggressively into petrochemicals, refining, and other industrial businesses. The company built the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, which became one of the world's largest and most complex refining facilities.

Dhirubhai Ambani died in July 2002 without leaving a will, leading to a dispute between his two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani. The dispute was resolved in 2005 through a family settlement brokered by their mother, Kokilaben Ambani. Under the settlement, Mukesh Ambani retained control of Reliance Industries (oil, gas, petrochemicals, and retail), while Anil Ambani received control of several other businesses grouped under Reliance ADA Group.

In 2010, the non-compete agreement between the Mukesh and Anil Ambani groups expired, and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries entered the telecommunications market. The company spent several years developing its 4G LTE network infrastructure before launching Jio in September 2016.

The launch of Jio in 2016 was one of the most disruptive events in Indian telecommunications history. Jio offered free voice calls and heavily subsidized data services, attracting hundreds of millions of subscribers within months. The disruption forced several major Indian telecommunications operators to merge or exit the market.

In 2020, Jio Platforms raised approximately ₹1.52 trillion (approximately $20 billion) from global investors including Meta (Facebook), Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and Intel. The fundraising valued Jio Platforms at approximately ₹4.91 trillion.

For FY2025-26, Reliance reported record consolidated revenue of ₹11,75,919 crore ($124.0 billion), up 9.8% year over year, driven by robust double-digit growth in Digital Services, Retail, and Media and Entertainment businesses. EBITDA was ₹207,911 crore ($21.9 billion), up 13.4%, and net profit was ₹95,754 crore ($10.1 billion), up 17.8%. Capital expenditure for the year was ₹144,271 crore ($15.2 billion), focused on growth projects in O2C, new energy, and expanding the Jio and Retail networks. The company announced a dividend of ₹6 per share.

Reliance is not a Certified B Corporation. The company has made significant commitments to sustainability and the energy transition. Reliance is developing new energy businesses including solar energy, green hydrogen, and battery storage as part of a strategic transition away from fossil fuels. Capital expenditure of ₹144,271 crore ($15.2 billion) in FY2025-26 included investments in new energy projects.

The company has committed to becoming net carbon neutral by 2035. Reliance's Jamnagar complex is being developed to include new energy manufacturing capabilities alongside its traditional oil refining and petrochemicals operations.

Reliance's O2C business faces long-term headwinds from the global energy transition, which the company acknowledges through its investments in new energy. The company's strategy is to use cash flows from the O2C business to fund growth in digital services, retail, and new energy.

Reliance Industries has faced regulatory scrutiny in several business areas. In the oil and gas segment, Reliance faced a dispute with the Indian government over natural gas pricing and production from the KG-D6 block, which was resolved through arbitration.

Jio's launch in 2016 was accompanied by regulatory complaints from competitors who argued that Jio's free services constituted predatory pricing. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India investigated the complaints but ultimately allowed Jio's pricing practices. The disruption caused by Jio led to significant consolidation in the Indian telecommunications market.

Dhirubhai Ambani, the company's founder, was a controversial figure during his lifetime, with critics alleging that his business success was partly attributable to political connections and regulatory favoritism. These allegations were never proven in court, and Dhirubhai Ambani is widely celebrated in India as an entrepreneurial icon.

The Ambani family's controlling stake limits minority shareholder influence over strategic decisions. The company's complex conglomerate structure makes it difficult for investors to value individual business segments.