Mukesh Ambani eclipses Europe\'s wealthiest man\, becomes world\'s 4th richest

Mukesh Ambani eclipses Europe's wealthiest man, becomes world's 4th richest

Ambani has slowly been shifting his focus to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India's fast-growing digital business

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Mukesh Ambani | Reliance Industries

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani
India’s richest person has already surpassed some of the biggest tycoons in recent weeks

has surged past Europe’s wealthiest man, making him the world’s fourth-richest person.

Ltd’s chairman is now worth $80.6 billion, after amassing $22 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That gives him a bigger wealth pile than France’s Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE has suffered from customers curbing high-end fashion purchases faster than the company can cut costs.

India’s richest person has already surpassed some of the biggest tycoons in recent weeks -- a list that includes Silicon Valley titans such as Elon Musk and Alphabet Inc co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as the so-called Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett.

While the conglomerate with a huge energy empire was slammed by a slump in demand for oil amid Covid-19, its shares have more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit got billions in investments from including Facebook Inc and Google.

Ambani has slowly been shifting his focus to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India’s fast-growing digital business. Google said last month it will spend $10 billion in the coming years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the world’s second-most populous nation.

Meanwhile, with LVMH shares down this year, Arnault has become the biggest loser among the world’s 500 richest people. His net worth has plunged $25.1 billion to $80.2 billion.

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First Published: Sat, August 08 2020. 15:57 IST