Mukesh Ambani crosses Elon Musk, Google founders to become world's sixth-richest billionaire
Mukesh Ambani's wealth recovered after a slight decline last week, which was triggered by a drop in Reliance stock after its 43rd AGM.
Mukesh Ambani's net worth has recovered after a slight dip last week triggered by Reliance Industries' stock decline after its 43rd AGM.
The RIL Chairman added $5.3 billion over the last week to become the world's sixth-richest person with a fortune of $74.3 billion.
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani
Ambani is now richer than SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman-CEO Warren Buffett, among others on the Bloomberg Billionaires' Index.
In 2020 alone, Ambani has added $15.6 billion to his personal wealth.
His wealth dropped last week after RIL stock crashed four percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange following the company's announcement about a delay in its much-awaited deal with oil giant Saudi Aramco. This led to shareholders resorting to a panic sell-off.
Ambani said at the AGM, "The deal with Saudi Aramco hasn't progressed per original timeline due to an unforeseen situation in the energy market and COVID-19 situation. We value our two-decade relationship with Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership."
Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index
As Reliance stock recovered on the BSE, Ambani's wealth climbed too. At present, he occupies his highest position till date on the billionaires' index.
He is preceded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Ambani has been one of the biggest wealth-gainers of the pandemic riding on the RIL stock, which has gained almost 20 percent since the start of the year.
The homegrown billionaire's riches are also a result of a staggering $20.4 billion foreign direct investment in Jio Platforms (RIL's digital arm), and a record Rs 53,100-crore rights issue of the parent company.
Reliance is India's most-valued publicly traded company; its valuation crossed $154 billion in July 2020 as foreign funding in Jio came to a close. Jio alone is valued at over $65 billion, and is reportedly eyeing a $100-billion IPO on foreign bourses by 2021.
Earlier this month, Ambani surpassed Warren Buffett on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index following RIL's billion-dollar distribution deal with fuel retailer BP.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta