It also dethroned Bharti Airtel to become the company with the second-highest market capitalisation in the Indian market at Rs 12.5 lakh crore. This is despite trailing the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led telecom rival on key metrics such as earnings and average revenue per user (ARPU), both of which are among the sector’s most important indicators.

How did Jio overtake Airtel in market value despite trailing it on key financial metrics — and does its valuation leave room for further gains?

Airtel leads on key metrics

For FY26, Jio reported consolidated revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, much lower than Airtel’s Rs 2.1 lakh crore.…