The richest man in India and, for a brief time in 2008, a contender for the title of the richest man in the world, Mukesh Ambani is the chair and managing director of Reliance Industries, a sprawling Indian conglomerate with interests in refining, oil and gas, petrochemicals, telecoms, retail, and media.
Ambani had a net worth of $113.9 billion as of March 2024. Most of this comes from his 42% stake in Reliance Industries, which claims to be the largest oil refining complex in the world.
Key Takeaways
- Ambani is one of the wealthiest people in the world.
- A 42% stake in Reliance Industries is the source of most of Mukesh's wealth.
- Other major assets include a 45% stake in Jio Financials Services, the Mumbai Indians cricket team, and a mansion in Mumbai.
Early Life and Education
Ambani was born in April 1957 in Yemen. His father, Dhirubhai, moved the family to Mumbai. Dhirubhai returned to India to escape an unstable political climate and, with his cousin, founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation. The company would eventually grow into Reliance Industries Limited.
Mukesh remained in Mumbai for college, getting a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Mumbai, then moved to Palo Alto, California, to pursue a master of business administration (MBA) at Stanford University. After graduating, he returned home to assist his father in the construction of a polyester filament yarn plant.
Reliance Industries
Reliance received a license from the Indian government to produce polyester filament yarn when Ambani returned to India from America in 1981. The company began in 1958 under Dhirubhai’s leadership as a provider of textiles. In the 1970s, diversified into petrochemicals and refining.
When Ambani came on board and joined the family business, it became one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world. Working under his father and then later taking control alongside his younger brother Anil, Ambani was credited for helping to bring Reliance into new growth markets and turning it into the conglomerate it is today.
The secret to its growth was not innovation but rather utilizing the most advanced technologies and systems toimplement a dynamicsupply chainto achieve significanteconomies of scale.
Mukesh Ambani officially joined Reliance in 1981, dropping out of Stanford University's MBA program to help his father run the family business.
Father's Death
In 2002, Ambani's father died of a stroke without leaving a will. This caused a feud between Ambani and his brother Anil.
Three years later, with the help of their mother, the two brothers agreed to split the business. Mukeshretained the flagship Reliance Industries, with interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas exploration, refining, and textiles, while Anil held on to telecoms, entertainment, power generation, and the asset management side of the business.
1957
The year Mukesh was born his father returned to India to create Reliance, which started out as a yarn trading business in Mumbai.
Reliance Under Ambani
Since 2005, Reliance’s revenues and profits have soared. Under Mukesh’s direction, the company developed best-in-classmanufacturingfacilities, strengthened its petroleum operations, and branched out into new areas, such as retail, 4G wireless broadband, and media.
$119 billion
The gross revenue reported by Reliance Industries for the 2023 fiscal year.
Reliance’s expansion caused its valuation to balloon. However, sentiment dipped and the share price fell flat. This has partly been blamed on corporate governance issues and Reliance’s opaque corporate structure.
The company’s image has taken a hit, with accusations ofcrony capitalismand all the bad press associated with it. There have also been allegations that Reliance uses its political connections to rig the system and get favorable deals.
Ambani has also been criticized personally for building a 400,000-square-footswanky home in Mumbai, an area where poverty is rife.
Why Is Mukesh Ambani One of the Richest People in the World?
Ambani has been the richest man in India for several years. With an estimated net worth of over $95 billion, he’s also one of the wealthiest people in the world.
The majority of his wealth is attributed to his 42% stake in Reliance Industries. The company's market capitalization was $235.04 billion.
Mukesh also owns the Mumbai Indians cricket team and about a 45% stake in Jio Financials Services, which used to be a subsidiary of Reliance but was then spun off into a separate entity. Other notable assets include Antilia, his Mumbai mansion valued at more than $2.2 billion in 2020 and is now probably worth considerably more. The 48,000-square-foot, 27-storey skyscraper houses three helipads, a yoga studio, a temple, a movie theater, a ballroom, and parking for 168 vehicles,
What Makes Mukesh Ambani So Rich?
Most of Ambani’s net worth derives from the 42% stake he holds in Reliance Industries, a Fortune 500 company currently valued at over $200 billion.
Was Mukesh Ambani Born Rich?
No, he wasn’t born rich. His father initially worked as a gas station attendant and when the family moved to Mumbai shortly after his birth, they reportedly lived in a small, cheap apartment in a large tenement building known locally as a chawl.
How Does Reliance Industries Make Money?
The bulk of Reliance’s revenues come from oil and chemicals, followed by retail, and digital services.
The Bottom Line
Mukesh Ambani became the richest man in Asia and one of the richest people in the world by helping to turn his father’s company, Reliance Industries, into a huge conglomerate and market leader across several industries. The company is worth over $200 billion, and its chair and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, owns just under half of it.