How Did Mukesh Ambani Get So Rich?

Born on 19th April 1957, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is well-known today as an Indian billionaire. Being the eldest son in the family, Mukesh is taking his father’s legacy ahead. Being surrounded and blessed by an abundance of fortune, Mukesh Ambani, the managing director of Reliance Industries, is living a life of dreams. Every event and occasion held by the Ambani family is never ordinary. Right from the Ambani ladies' mesmerising jewels, royal weddings, luxury cars, the $4.6 billion 27-storey skyscraper home to the city’s newest NMACC.

However, the fact that almost every Indian would be pondering upon is how did Mukesh Ambani reach this level of fortune that he owns today? He didn’t have any significant business after the family division, how did he earn a Net worth of $8520 crores? This curiosity made us deep dive into Mukesh Ambani's journey of building the massive businesses he owns today and what made him achieve extraordinary success in life.

How did Mukesh Ambani get his break?

Looking back at the initial years, Mukesh Ambani got his break from his father Dhirubhai Ambani. Dhirubhai Ambani his business journey by trading yarn and spices. Then, he founded Reliance Industries to manufacture textiles and fabrics.

Before joining the forces with his brother - Anil Ambani - at the Reliance board, Mukesh was 20-years-old and was trained in chemical engineering. Mukesh created his own stance and earned respect by executing projects on a larger-scale. Gradually, he contributed largely into turning the company towards petrochemicals and refining in the 1990s. And in 2000s, the retail and telecom happened. He was a significant contributor to the establishment of Reliance’s first substantial Manufacturing project at Patalganga and the world’s largest refining complex at Jamnagar.

The fall out of Ambani Brothers

When Dhirubhai Ambani - passed away in 2002, it was a difficult time for the family as he didn’t leave any will behind. Mukesh and Anil got into a dispute that lasted for more than ten years. Their mother, Kokilaben had to step in to settle the dispute and split the family business between the brothers. In this settlement, Anil wanted telecom, though it was Mukesh’s invention. After a lot of heartburn, Mukesh handed over telecom to Anil, which was more than 25000 cr. So Anil took reign over electricity, financial services and telecoms, Mukesh retained control over textiles, oil and gas, petrochemicals, and refining. The companies under Mukesh Ambani were called 'Reliance Industries' and those under Anil Ambani were called Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group' or 'Reliance Group.'

This split of assets also accompanied a non-competition clause and the brothers were prohibited from venturing into one another’s businesses for ten years.

The path carved for Anil Ambani after separation

Soon after the separation, Anil Ambani was on cloud nine as he had cooked morsels on his plate in the form of the telecom business. Meanwhile, Mukesh was busy focusing on RIL. By 2008, Anil had become the sixth richest person in the world and had a net worth of $42 billion. However, some bad investment decisions, huge sums of loans, and a lack of consistency and self-consciousness became the reasons for his tragic fallout. His fortune started dwindling as his power business accumulated large amounts of debts and the telecom business suffered tremendously because of excessive and cut-throat competition.

Back in 2019, Anil received an order from the Supreme Court of India to either go to jail or repay the entire debt along with interest, which came to approximately $80 million. Unlikely, Mukesh stepped in to save his brother and paid the entire sum to avoid a jail sentence for his sibling. In 2020, Anil declared zero to be his net worth and that he doesn’t have any significant assets to be liquidated to pay the debts. And then, not just Mukesh saved his brother by paying his debt but also purchased most of the assets of Reliance Communications.

How Mukesh Ambani made his money with one entity RIL?

The journey of Mukesh Ambani to become the richest person in Asia started in 1981 when he started helping his father with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). Since RIL was already in telecommunication, retail, petrochemical and refinement services, these sectors began increasing Mukesh’s personal wealth exponentially. Under his leadership, Reliance Industries gradually but constantly achieved new heights. By 2007, it became the first Indian company to cross the mark of $100 billion in terms of Market capitalisation.

With time, Reliance Industries stepped into other segments as well, such as SEZ development, cloth, entertainment (Reliance Eros), solar energy, logistics, and the retail business. The most notable step taken by Mukesh Ambani was when he entered the telecom Industry and launched Jio Infotel, commonly known as Jio. This new venture led to serious disruption in the entire industry. With the launch, Mukesh pushed existing players in the telecom industry towards massive losses and they were compelled to merge with each other.

Mukesh Ambani Vs Anil Ambani

Both brothers sat in the same room where their father conducted business, observing the man behind these industries. Practically, both received the same type of workshop, input, training and skills from Dhirubhai Ambani. Yet, one of them could not replicate the success mantra and brought his own doom upon himself.

Why did both the brothers, with enough Capital available at their disposal, look at the telecom business so differently?

Please think.

The difference is their way of thinking!

After separation, spreaded his hands over every possible sector, while Mukesh was more cautious and detail-oriented; thus, he took one sector at a time. That is why he is called the God of details. Mukesh has 25X grand vision than Anil along with the patience to execute that mega vision.

Look at the World's biggest startup - JIO.

Mukesh Ambani has always been regarded as the next Dhirubhai Ambani, courtesy of his business style and skills. The Reliance group has always believed in executing on a larger scale with Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Retail being the two notable examples.

On the other hand, Anil Ambani had managed to create a new line of businessmen with the utmost expertise in Finance. He is believed to be a new-age entrepreneur who follows the latest principles in his business.

How Mukesh Ambani will segregate his wealth to avoid the mistakes of his father?

Since Dhirubhai Ambani passed away without a will, leaving the two brothers fighting in court, Mukesh learnt a hard lesson and is not going to repeat the folly of his father. Mukesh is the father of three children. The first-born, Akash Ambani, is a successor chairman at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. The twin sister of Akash, Isha Ambani is most likely to head Reliance Retail which is running the largest network of stores in India along with JioMart, which is a federation of mom-and-pop shops selling products on the internet.

The youngest of the family, Anant Ambai, is expected to take the legacy of the oil-to-chemicals business. However, there is a twist here. Anant is supposed to complete the pivot away of Mukesh from polluting hydrocarbons and go toward cleaner energy sources, such as green hydrogen, sodium-ion batteries and solar panels at less than $1 per 1 kg in ten years or what Mukesh calls the 1-1-1 target. Amidst this information, it is a bit difficult to confirm the eventual arrangement until the changes have been implemented. In this situation, Mukesh and Nita may exercise their control through shares in Reliance Industries, which has shares in Reliance O2C, Reliance Retail and the energy business, and Jio Platforms.