$100 billion: Mukesh Ambani joins Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos in ultra-rich list

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is now among the handful of people worldwide with a fortune of at least $100 billion. Some of the other members of the exclusive wealth club include the likes of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Ambani is not the only Indian billionaire to have made massive gains this year as the country’s surging stock market has helped Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani Group, add $39.5 billion to his fortune. Tech tycoon and India’s third-richest person, Azim Premji’s wealth grew by $12.8 billion.

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Ambani, Asia’s richest person, entered the “rarefied group of 11 men” as Reliance shares hit a record-high on Friday. His wealth has increased by $23.8 billion this year, according to Bloomberg billionaires Index.

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Since inheriting the oil-refining and petrochemicals businesses of his late father Dhirubhai Ambani’s empire back in 2005, the 64-year-old has taken the conglomerate to new heights with forays into retail, technology and e-commerce sectors.

Jio, the telecommunications unit, has become the dominant carrier in India within years of its launch in 2016. In 2020, Ambani’s retail and technology ventures raised about $27 billion by selling stakes to global powerhouse investors such as Google, Facebook, and Silver Lake, among others.

Ambani also plans an ambitious foray into green energy, revealing in June a planned investment of about $10 billion over three years. In September, he announced Reliance would “aggressively” pursue production of cheaper green hydrogen in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitions of turning India into a clean fuel hub in order to combat climate change and cut down on the country’s energy imports.

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Reliance’s oil-to-chemical business has now become a separate unit and talks are underway to rope in Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) as an investor.

However, according to Bloomberg, fossil fuel still plays a central role at Reliance, accounting for almost 60% of its $73 billion in annual revenue.