Mukesh Ambani becomes 5th richest man in world, trails Jeff Bezos,Bill Gates,Bernard Arnault in top 3

Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani has become the fifth richest man in the world after surpassing former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, according to data on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI).

Aside from being the richest Indian, Ambani is also the richest Asian. The 63-year-old billionaire has now entered the exclusive club of the world's top five richest people. He is wealthier than American business tycoons including Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Elon Musk, according to Forbes.

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The recent rally in Reliance’s share price has added to Ambani’s wealth. Just today, he has added $2.9 billion to his net worth. On 22^ndJuly the shares of Ambani led-Reliance Industries (RIL) surged to a new high by crossing ₹2,000- mark.

Ambani's net worth has seen some ups and downs this year. As per the index, Ambani entered the year with a net worth of $58.6 billion. As the coronavirus outbreak hit the economy and lockdowns were imposed in the country, Ambani's wealth saw a decline. When February began, his fortune was $54.6 billion and towards the third week, it rose to $57.1 billion.

However, there was a period of sharp decline after that. His net worth went down by nearly 50% to $32.6 billion by March 23, 2020. During the lockdown period, Reliance announced a series on investments in its digital arm Jio Platforms, which led to RIL shares soaring once again.

As share price started hitting fresh record highs and RIL m-cap crossed the Rs 12 lakh crore mark, Mukesh Ambani's net worth also surged. On 25 April, his fortune crossed $51 billion mark again. As more investments started pouring in for Jio, his net worth also soared from $53.4 billion by the end of May to $63.1 billion by June-end.

Ballmer's net worth as of July 15 was $75 billion (Rs 5.63 lakh crore). In order to surpass Ballmer, Ambani needed to add $3.4 billion to his net worth. This meant that Ambani's net worth had to go up by around Rs 26,000 crore in order for him to enter the list of world's top 5 richest people (assuming Ballmer's net worth remains constant at $75 billion).

Top 5 richest people in the world, as of July 22nd

Jio is now planning to work on a new smartphone for the Indian market. Jio Smartphone might be a threat to Chinese brands like Xiomi, Vivo, Oppo who currently dominate the Indian smartphone market. 

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