by MATTHEW LOH
Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have both enjoyed a meteoric rise in wealth in the last decade, dominating India’s energy, infrastructure, retail, and defense development industries.
Though they operate in some of the same industries, Adani and Ambani’s gigantic multi-sector companies have steered clear of direct competition with one another.
However, Bloomberg reported on Monday that Ambani’s aides received word in June that Adani was planning to bid for India’s first 5G airwaves — intruding upon one of Ambani’s company’s main pillars of business.
While Ambani’s Reliance Industries is one of India’s largest telecom companies, wireless telecommunication is new territory for the Adani Group, Bloomberg reported.
Ambani ultimately declined to challenge Adani’s bid, but their recent near-miss is giving rise to speculation that the two giants will eventually clash as they mop up more industries, the outlet reported.
We took a look at each of the two billionaires business empires, fortunes, and real-estate investments. Representatives for Ambani and Adani did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Adani is worth $126 billion, making him richer than Warren Buffett, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Once a college dropout, he overtook Ambani in February as the richest man in Asia, after his wealth skyrocketed by $12 billion in the first two months of 2022. Adani has added $49.9 billion to his net worth so far this year.
Ambani is currently worth $92.9 billion, making him the second-richest person in Asia, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He nearly tripled his wealth during the COVID-19 pandemic — his net worth was around $36 billion in 2020, per Forbes.
Ambani’s telecom company, Jio Infocomm, has seen a meteoric rise: It claims to have accrued more than 350 million subscribers in the first five years after its launch in 2015. Last year, Jio Infocomm was estimated to have around 426 million subscribers, according to the company’s latest annual reports.
Business Insider for more