Mukesh Ambani

Born

Mukesh Ambani (born April 19, 1957, Aden, Yemen) is an Indian businessman who serves as the chairman and managing director of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a multinational conglomerate with businesses in sectors such as petrochemicals, energy, textiles, retail and telecommunications. With a net worth of $117.5 billion as of March 4, 2024, Ambani is the wealthiest person in Asia. He was ranked among the top 10 wealthiest people in the world in Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Ambani is one of four children of the famous Indian industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, who previously worked as a gas station attendant in Aden, Yemen. Due to the increasingly unstable political climate in Aden, where Mukesh Ambani was born, the family moved to the Bhuleshwar area of ​​Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1958, where they lived in a chawl (a communal building typically consisting of low-rent two-room apartments). That same year Dhirubhai Ambani and a cousin of his founded Reliance Commercial Corporation, which grew into RIL from a commodity-trading business they initially operated from a rented one-room space.

Education and early professional life

Mukesh Ambani earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai) and then a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University. However, he left the program in 1981 and joined the family business, where he worked to diversify the company into a number of sectors, including communications, infrastructure, petrochemicals, petroleum refining, polyester fibers, and gas and oil production.

Feud between the Ambani brothers

After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani took over joint leadership of the Reliance companies. However, the brothers’ feud over control led their mother Kokilaben Ambani to split Reliance’s assets through a non-compete agreement (2006-10), under which Mukesh Ambani took control of the gas, oil and petrochemical units under the Reliance Group umbrella as RIL. Anil Ambani gained control of telecom, power generation and financial services.

Expansion of RIL

Mukesh Ambani is credited with starting the world’s largest start-up petroleum refinery in 1999 at Jamnagar in the state of Gujarat, as well as leading the construction of several state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, which significantly increased RIL’s production capacity. Another refinery was added in 2008 close to the first Jamnagar refinery. Two years ago Ambani led the development of Reliance Retail—a retail network consisting of both physical and online stores, which Reliance claims is India’s largest retailer. Reliance Retail’s customer base is projected to reach 249 million in the 2023 fiscal year.

Amban’s many business successes include the purchase of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team Mumbai Indians through a Reliance subsidiary in 2008. Mumbai Indians were the only IPL team to increase in brand value in 2020 despite empty stadiums in a pandemic-hit world. It retained its position as the most valuable IPL brand in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In 2010 the two Reliance groups owned by Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani mutually cancelled the non-compete agreement signed in 2006, and later that decade Mukesh Ambani founded Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of RIL dedicated to telecommunications and e-commerce. The Jio brand introduced India’s first nationwide network for 4G broadband service in 2016. By August 2023, Jio’s subscriber base had surpassed 450 million, and its 5G subscribers numbered over 50 million. Around the same time, Ambani announced that Jio would be one of the first companies globally to develop 6G capabilities.

In February 2024, Ambani’s RIL signed an agreement with Indian media company Viacom18 and US entertainment giant Disney to form a joint venture valued at $8.5 billion, becoming one of India’s leading media companies. The joint venture aims to provide entertainment and sports coverage to over 750 million viewers and will have exclusive rights to distribute Disney productions in India. Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani is set to become the chairperson of the joint venture.

Family and residence

Mukesh Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, an educationist, a businessman, and a champion of women’s and children’s rights. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee; founder and chair of Reliance Foundation, RIL’s philanthropic arm; and manager of the high-value IPL team the Mumbai Indians. The billionaire couple lives in Antilia, their luxury home along South Mumbai’s Altamount Road, one of the most expensive addresses in the world. In fact, Antilia is one of the most expensive homes in the world. This ostentatious 400,000-square-foot (37,000-square-meter) residence has 27 floors, a temple, a salon, a private movie theater, a garage that can accommodate 168 cars, a car service station, and a snow room to help the family stay cool in the humid Mumbai summers.

Mukesh and Nita Ambani have three children—twins, Akash and Isha, and a younger son, Anant. All three Ambani children join Reliance as board directors in August 2023. Akash Ambani heads Jio Infocomm; Isha Ambani is tasked with driving Reliance Retail’s expansion into new formats and geographies; and Anant Ambani is leading the Reliance Group’s energy and materials businesses, helping Reliance on its path to becoming a net-zero carbon company by 2035. Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, a board director of his father Viren Merchant’s Encore Healthcare, in July 2024 and the pre-wedding festivities that began in early March have made headlines in India. Pop star Rihanna performed at the pre-wedding function in Jamnagar The extravagant event in March was followed by a lavish cruise from Italy to France in June – a lavish affair that included Bollywood and cricket celebrities on the guest list and also featured performances by pop singer Katy Perry and popular 1990s boy band Backstreet Boys. Between the cruise in June and the wedding on the weekend of July 12, the Ambani family hosted a performance by Canadian singer Justin Bieber in Mumbai. The wedding is expected to be attended by the likes of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas and her musician husband Nick Jonas, American television personality Kim Kardashian and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other achievements

Mukesh Ambani was chosen in 2006 to co-chair the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – an international organisation composed of some of the world’s leading business leaders, politicians, policymakers, scholars, philanthropists, trade unionists and representatives of non-governmental organisations that meet annually to discuss global commerce, economic development, political concerns and important social issues. In 2010 he was elected to serve as a member of the WEF Foundation Board.

Ambani was ranked number one among Indian CEOs and number two globally in the Brand Guardianship Index by Brand Finance for two consecutive years, 2023 and 2024. He also topped India Today’s “The High and Mighty 2023: 50 Power People” list. The same year he was among the top 10 in the Indian Express’ list of most powerful Indians.

Ambani became India’s first rupee trillionaire in 2007 and that year The Economic Times newspaper and the news agency Press Trust of India simultaneously named him the world’s richest man. In January 2024, Forbes India named Ambani, who then had a net worth of $96.4 billion, as Asia’s richest person. He was included in Forbes magazine’s annual billionaires list as one of the 10 richest people in the world in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani (born December 28, 1932, Chorwad, Gujarat, British India – died July 6, 2002, Mumbai, India) was an Indian industrialist who was the founder of Reliance Industries, a giant petrochemicals, communications, power, and textiles conglomerate, the largest exporter in India and the first privately owned Indian company in the Fortune 500.

Ambani was the third of five children of a village school teacher and his wife, and he grew up in a family of modest means. At the age of 17, he moved to the British colony of Aden to live with his brother. He began his career as a clerk at A. Besse & Co., the largest transcontinental trading firm east of Suez in the 1950s. There he learned trading, accounting, and other business skills. Ambani returned to India in 1958 and settled in Bombay (now Mumbai).

Ambani began trading spices in the late 1950s, which he named Reliance Commercial Corporation. He soon branched out into other commodities, adopting a strategy of offering high-quality products and accepting lower profits than his competitors. His business grew rapidly. After deciding that the corporation had gone as far as it could in commodities, Ambani turned his attention to synthetic textiles. He took his first step in backward integration by opening the first Reliance textile mill in 1966. Continuing the policy of backward integration and diversification, he gradually built Reliance into a petrochemicals giant and later expanded the company’s business to include plastics and power generation.

Ambani took Reliance public in 1977 after nationalized banks refused to finance him. His agility in handling a shaky economy and weak government regulations and bureaucracy led to accusations of political manipulation, corruption, and engineered raids on competitors, but investor confidence in Reliance remained unshaken — partly because of the attractive dividends the company offered, as well as the founder’s charisma and vision. Ambani is credited with introducing the stock market to the average investor in India, and thousands attended Reliance’s annual general meetings, sometimes held in sports stadiums, with many more watching on television.

Ambani handed over the company’s daily operations to his sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, in the mid-1980s, but continued to oversee the company until shortly before his death in 2002.

Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani (born June 4, 1959, Bombay [now Mumbai], Maharashtra state, India) is an Indian businessman and chairman of the Reliance Group.

Ambani completed his BSc from Kishinchand Chellaram College in Bombay (now Mumbai) and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an MBA degree from its prestigious Wharton School in 1983. He returned to India and joined his father Dhirubhai Ambani in performing his duties as chief executive officer. After his father suffered a stroke in 1985, Anil Ambani took over the day-to-day management of the company’s financial affairs under his father’s supervision.

He and his brother Mukesh Ambani assumed joint leadership of the Reliance companies after their father’s death in 2002. However, the brothers’ feud over control prompted their mother Kokilaben Ambani to divide Reliance’s assets through a non-compete agreement in 2005. Mukesh Ambani assumed control of Reliance Industries Limited and its more traditional units, while Anil Ambani gained control of the telecommunications, power generation, and financial services units through the divestiture. After amending a non-compete agreement in 2010, the brothers agreed to share their companies’ telecommunications networks in 2013 in their first major cooperative effort since 2005.

In the political arena, Anil Ambani was elected in 2004 to represent the state of Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s legislature. He resigned in 2006 amid a public controversy over the holding of offices of profit by members of Parliament. The controversy had forced Indian National Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to resign from the lower house just days earlier. Although Ambani was not accused of any wrongdoing during the controversy, he stated his “firm view” that public servants should remain free from the possibility of controversy.

FAQS Mukesh Ambani

Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Mukesh Ambani:

1. Who is Mukesh Ambani?

• Mukesh Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman and the chairman and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, a conglomerate with interests in petrochemicals, refining, oil, telecommunications, retail, and more. He is one of the richest individuals in the world.

2. What is Mukesh Ambani’s net worth?

• As of 2024, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is estimated to be around $100 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people globally.

3. What is Reliance Industries?

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is involved in various industries, including petrochemicals, refining, oil, telecommunications (Jio), retail, and media. RIL is India’s largest private-sector company.

4. How did Mukesh Ambani contribute to the telecom industry in India?

• Mukesh Ambani revolutionized the Indian telecom industry with the launch of Reliance Jio in 2016. Jio offered affordable data plans, free voice calls, and other services, leading to a massive increase in internet users in India and a significant drop in data costs.

5. What is Antilia?

• Antilia is Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai. It is a 27-story skyscraper and one of the most expensive private residences in the world, valued at over $1 billion.

6. What is Mukesh Ambani’s educational background?

• Mukesh Ambani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai. He also attended Stanford University for an MBA program but did not complete it, choosing instead to join Reliance Industries.

7. Who are Mukesh Ambani’s family members?

• Mukesh Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, and they have three children: Akash Ambani, Isha Ambani, and Anant Ambani. Akash and Isha are actively involved in the family business.

8. What philanthropic work does Mukesh Ambani do?

• Mukesh Ambani, through the Reliance Foundation led by his wife Nita Ambani, is involved in various philanthropic activities, including education, healthcare, rural development, and disaster relief.

9. How has Mukesh Ambani influenced the Indian economy?

• Mukesh Ambani has played a significant role in shaping the Indian economy through his business ventures, particularly in the telecom and retail sectors. His investments and innovations have contributed to job creation, infrastructure development, and the digital revolution in India.

10. What are some key milestones in Mukesh Ambani’s career?

• Some key milestones include taking over Reliance Industries after the passing of his father Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, launching Reliance Jio in 2016, and expanding Reliance’s retail and digital businesses to become major players in India.