Mukesh Ambani is rich. In fact, he’s very rich. So rich that he is now, arguably, Asia’s most well-off individual, supplanting Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who had long held that title. Unlike the mercurial Ma, chances are you’ve never heard of Ambani. He is, however, part of a new generation of stealth entrepreneurs who craves riches, but shuns recognition.

Ambani’s wealth stems from his role as the chairman of Reliance Industries, a Mumbai-headquartered energy, telecom and textiles conglomerate. Reportedly, the personal wealth of this shadowy entrepreneur is around US$48.5 billion, a figure that puts Jack Ma’s US$36.9 billion to shame.

More impressively still, this is not merely the 21st century incarnation of some deeply-rich dynasty. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani – to give him his full name – was born on 19 April 1957 in Yemen to a family of comparatively modest means. In 1958, the family migrated en masse to Mumbai, where Ambani Senior had plans to break into the spice trade, though he soon switched his focus to the then-emerging textile sector.

The young Mukesh was privately educated at Mumbai’s Hill Grange High School, before going on to study for a Bachelor of Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, then part of the University of Mumbai. While he later enrolled in an MBA course at Stanford, it was to remain uncompleted. In 1980, he was called back home to help manage the growth of Reliance, the then-rapidly expanding business his father had founded.

In 1984, a chance encounter at a dance performance saw him introduced to Nita, his future wife, with the two going on to marry the following year. Since then, they have had three children – two boys, Anant and Akash, as a daughter, Isha. As a sign of the couple’s wealth, on Nita’s 44th birthday, Mukesh surprised her with a 180-seater Airbus of her very own. At a conservative estimate, it’s a plane that’s worth some US$70 million – and that’s without taking into account the retro-fitted sky bar, Jacuzzi and satellite TV facilities.

The couple’s home, as you might expect, is no less luxurious. Valued at US$1 billion, the family lives in Antilia, a 27-storey building in southern Mumbai that requires a permanent staff of 600 just to keep everything in order. Tellingly, it is the world’s second most expensive private residence, with only Buckingham Palace – the central London home of the Queen of England – beating it to first place.

For her part, Nita has not been content to stay in her husband’s shadow. A teacher by profession, she is the founder of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School, one of Mumbai’s leading private education institutions. She has also been recognised by Forbes as one of Asia’s most influential businesswomen and was the first Indian woman to become a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Anil, Mukesh’s younger brother, has also proved no slouch. As chairman of the Reliance Group, a spin-off of the original family business, he oversees a diverse range of business activities, including telecommunications, entertainment, financial services, energy generation and infrastructure development. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he is married to Bollywood actress Tina Munim, with the couple having two sons. Anil is estimated to be worth some US$2.3 billion.

Of the next generation, Mukesh’s 26-year-old daughter Isha is probably currently in pole position. After graduating with a degree in psychology from Yale, in 2014 she joined the board of two Reliance subsidiaries – mobile network operator Jio and Reliance Retail – and is now considered to be one of the most promising young businesswomen in Asia. Her personal wealth is currently estimated to be around US$660 million.

Over the last 16 years, Reliance Industries has established itself as one of India’s largest and most profitable companies. In 2010, its position was further consolidated when Mukesh Ambani oversaw the creation of the world’s largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, a city on India’s west coast. Having started out in the spice and textile sectors, the business has now extended its tendrils into energy, petrochemicals, telecom and mining.

Despite his success, Mukesh maintains that he still remains very much grounded, continuing to be a regular at Mysore Café, the restaurant where he ate as a student back in the 1970s. A strict vegetarian and a teetotaler, he maintains that Bollywood movies are his only indulgence, saying: “You need some escapism in life.”

To be fair, when you live in a 27-storey palace, have more in the bank than most third world nations and rejoice in the title of Forbes’ 18th Richest Person in the World Overall, you can probably get by on less escapism than most.

Text: Robert Blain
Photos: AFP