With a fortune of at least $100 billion, Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, has joined Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is the world’s most elite wealth club.
As the stock of India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. soared to a new high on Friday, its chairman joined an exclusive group of 11 men. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is now worth $100.6 billion, up to $23.8 billion from the previous year.
Since taking over his late father’s oil-refining and petrochemicals industries in 2005, Ambani, 64, has been attempting to convert the energy behemoth into retail, technology, and e-commerce behemoth. His telecoms firm, which began operations in 2016, is currently India’s most dominant carrier. Last year, his retail and technology businesses received $27 billion from investors ranging from Facebook Inc. and Google to KKR & Co. and Silver Lake.
In June, Ambani revealed an ambitious plan to invest $10 billion in green energy over the next three years. Last month, the billionaire who started his business will “aggressively” explore green hydrogen generation. The initiative is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aims to develop India to become a worldwide manufacturing powerhouse for greener fuel in order to tackle climate change and reduce India’s energy imports.
While some have interpreted Ambani’s remark as an admission that his company has to go beyond oil to secure its future, oil continues to play a significant role at Reliance, accounting for over 60% of the company’s $73 billion in revenue.
