Mukesh Ambani pips Silicon Valley titans to become world's 6th richest person

Breaking yet another record, Reliance Industries' Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, has now pipped Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Tesla founder Elon Musk to become the world's sixth-richest person. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, India's richest man is now worth $72.4 billion.

After a drop in US tech shares on Monday, Page's fortune now stands at $71.6 billion, while Sergey Brin's is at $69.4 billion and Tesla's Elon Musk is worth $68.6 billion.

Ambani's wealth had just last week surpassed legendary American investor Warren Buffett's. The surge in the 63-year-old's wealth is owed to the fact that shares of his conglomerate have more than doubled after a brief lull in March as its digital unit – Jio Platforms got billions in investments from companies including Facebook, KKR and, most recently, Qualcomm.

Last month, Reliance became the first Indian firm to hit a market valuation of USD 150 billion helped by a continuous rally in its share price.

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The oil-to-telecom conglomerate has increasingly weaned away from its core petroleum business to exploit India's lucrative telecom and e-commerce sector. Ambani's Jio Platforms, which debuted in 2016, has raked in high-profile investments from multinational tech companies as well as institutional investors in the last two months, totaling $15.64 billion (roughly Rs 1.17 lakh crores) for just over 25% of the company.

Furthermore, the RIL said in June that taken together with last year’s sale of 49% stake in its fuel retailing venture to BP Plc of UK for Rs 7,000 crore, it has raised more than Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

Ambani looks up to AGM 

RIL will hold its 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday in a virtual mode amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Thousands of shareholders from at least scores of locations in India and abroad are expected to tune in to the meeting.

Reports say investors are waiting for announcements about the details of JioMeet, the company’s recently-launched video conferencing app, as well as RIL’s plans for Jio Platforms listing, Jio Fiber trajectory and the launch of 5G. Further plans for JioMart, the e-commerce venture of RIL’s subsidiary Reliance Retail, according to reports, is on the watchlist of investors and industry watchers.

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