Mukesh Ambani becomes world’s 4th richest man

NEW DELHI: India’s Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has become the world’s 4th richest man after he amassed $22 billion this year. 

The Reliance Industries chairman is now worth $80.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Ambani has overtaken France’s Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton has suffered from customers curbing high-end fashion purchases faster than the company's bid to cut costs.

Ambani, the 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 co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as the so-called Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

While Ambani’s conglomerate with a huge energy empire suffered because of a slump in demand for oil amid Covid-19, its shares have more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit attracted billions in investments from companies including Facebook 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.