Battle of Billionaires: Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are neck-and-neck in personal wealth

Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani - two of India Inc's most prominent faces - are caught in a fascinating battle of net worth.

The Reliance CMD, who's been India's 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 fluctuates often based on their companies' market caps. Even a slight drop in share prices can end up eroding billions of dollars off their fortunes.

The Adani Group Chairman has added a whopping $55.3 billion to his wealth since the start of 2021. In April, the Group became only the third Indian conglomerate, after RIL and TCS, to cross $100 billion in market cap. Later in the year, HDFC Bank and Infosys also joined the coveted club.

Shares of four out of six listed companies of the Adani Group soared to an all-time high this year, according to BSE. Ambani, on the other hand, has grown his fortune by $13 billion year-to-date.

Both businessmen feature in the list of the world's top 15 richest people, as per Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is perched on top, with a ginormous fortune of $304 billion. He's added $135 billion to his kitty in 2021 alone. Jeff Bezos is a distant second with a net worth of $205 billion.

Interestingly, beyond their neck-to-neck net worth, Ambani and Adani are also heating up India's green energy sector.

#BTCover Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have taken to green energy with gusto. What’s on the cards? Find out in the new-look Business Today issue.

Also, read what LIC Chairperson M.R. Kumar has to say on the behemoth’s mega IPO.

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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 2025. AEGL shares have risen 13-fold in the past two years, powering the Group's ambition to be the world's largest renewable energy firm by 2030.

On the other hand, Reliance's green energy business picked up pace this year, as Ambani cracked multiple deals in solar, battery, and hydrogen projects across the world. Analysts reckon that clean energy could contribute nearly 10 percent to RIL's bottomline by FY26.

On Thursday, RIL shares rose 6.36% to Rs 2,501, while Adani Green Energy was up 0.95% to Rs 1,404 on BSE.

The battle has only begun.

(For more, read the cover story from the latest issue of Business Today. On stands now)

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