Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani - two of India Inc's most prominent faces - are caught in a fascinating battle of net worth.
Reliance CMD, who has been India and Asia's richest person since April 2021 after dethroning Alibaba's Jack Ma, could soon be toppled from his numero uno position by a fellow Indian Adani.
The latter's fortune now stands at $89.1 billion, just $0.6 billion shy of the former's $89.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their wealth is often influenced by their company's market caps. Even a drop in share prices can end up eroding billions of dollars off their fortunes.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Adani Group Chairman has added $55.3 billion to his wealth. In April, the Group became the third Indian conglomerate after RIL and TCS crossed $100 billion in market cap. HDFC Bank and Infosys also joined the coveted club later in the year. According to BSE, four out of six listed companies of the Adani Group soared to an all-time high this year. Ambani has grown his fortune by $13 billion year-to-date.
According to Bloomberg, both businessmen are on the list of the world's top 15 richest people. Elon Musk is a ginormous fortune, and he has a ginormous fortune of $304 billion. He added $135 billion to his kitty in 2021 alone. Jeff Bezos is a distant second with a net worth of $205 billion.
Ambani and Adani are heating up India's green energy sector, and are also heating up India's green energy sector beyond their neck-to- neck net worth.
Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have taken to green energy with gusto, as did BTCover Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. Also, read what LIC Chairperson M.R. Adani Green Energy, an earlier entrant in the space, aims to build a renewables portfolio consisting of wind, solar and hybrid power projects of 25 GW by the year 2025. The Group's ambition to be the world's largest renewable energy firm by 2030 is fueled by the fact that AEGL shares have risen 13 fold in the past two years.
The green energy business of Reliance picked up pace this year as Ambani cracked multiple deals in solar, battery, and hydrogen projects across the world. By FY 26 the clean energy could contribute nearly 10 percent to RIL's bottomline, according to analysts.
On Thursday, RIL shares went up 6.36% to Rs 2,501, while Adani Green Energy went up 0.95% to Rs 1,404 on the BSE.
The battle has only begun.