Mukesh Ambani, the head of India’s most valuable company, overtook Bytedance’s Zhang Yinmin to become Asia’s richest person on Monday after a nearly 12% surge in Reliance Industries stock added $8.5 billion to his net worth.
Key Facts
Ambani, Reliance Industries’ chairman and managing director, saw his wealth surge 10.5%,bringing his estimated net worth to $88.8 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list.
Reliance Industries stock surged nearly 12% on Monday, adding over $19 billion to its market value, after the company posted quarterly revenue at 255.5 billion rupees, equivalent to $2.7 billion, beating analysts’ $2.3 billion (213.67 billion-rupee) prediction.
After the earnings, an analyst for Avendus Spark upgraded the stock from reduce to add, which Bloomberg reported means the company has no hold or sell recommendations for the first time since 2017.
Reliance Industries’ jump comes after one of its subsidiaries, Jio Platforms, which Ambani also controls, soared 27% on its trading debut on the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai in late October.
Ambani, who sits in No. 23 on the billionaires list, surpassed Yinmin, cofounder and former CEO and chairman of Bytedance, who sits in No. 25 with an estimated net worth of $84 billion.
Key Background
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries operates across petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom, retail, media and financial services, with many subsidiaries including Jio Platforms and its Oil-to-Chemicals (O2C) division. The company was founded by Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani, Mukesh Ambani’s father, in 1957, and has the highest market capitalization in India, valued at ₹17 lakh crore, equivalent to around $186 billion. Jio Platforms, which represents the digital services and telecommunications arm, is India’s largest mobile carrier, with over 533 million subscribers as of June.
Surprising Fact
Jio Platforms’ initial public offering was the largest in India’s history, raising $3.2 billion in its IPO at a roughly $106 billion valuation. Reliance Industries holds a roughly 66% stake in the company, which went public on Oct. 28.
Forbes Valuation
Reliance Industries ranked No. 55 globally on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest public companies in 2026, with $119.7 billion in reported sales, $229.6 billion in assets and $9.1 in profits.
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