Mukesh Ambani, spent quite some time last year, establishing his children at his business empire’s businesses. Akash Ambani, his elder son was named the chairman of Reliance Jio, while his twin sister Isha Ambani will oversee Reliance’s retail business. The tycoon’s younger son, Anant Ambani will be looking after the energy unit.
After handing over the operational reins of his business to his children, Mukesh Ambani will be focusing his attention on Reliance’s pivot to green energy, as per reports. He will oversee strategy, the building of gigafactories and blue hydrogen facilities, assess acquisition targets and talk to potential investors.
Last year, Ambani unveiled plans to spend $75 billion on clean energy projects over the next 15 years. He will go eyeball-to-eyeball with Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest man, as far as green energy is concerned.
Ambani is known for his single-minded focus on key pursuits. In the 1990s, he lived in shipping containers while building Reliance Industries to become the world’s largest petrochemical refinery. About twenty years later, he started a company, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, which went on to become India’s largest telecom operator.
Reliance Jio spent more than $50 billion to become India’s No.1 wireless carrier within three years of its launch in 2016. Over a few months during the pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020, he raised more than $20 billion from investors including Silicon Valley giants, Meta Platforms Inc. and Google for his digital ventures.
Reliance has a target for becoming carbon net-zero by 2035. India’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables will provide an impetus to Reliance’s continuous “hyper-growth” over many decades, the tycoon told shareholders last August. On the other hand, Adani has committed $70 billion to become the world’s largest renewables player.
Written by Simran Bafna
