India’s two richest men might be vying for the top spot in India’s wealth rankings, but they are open to collaborating with each other in the business sphere.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance has picked up a 26 percent stake in a power project of Gautam Adani’s Adani Power in Madhya Pradesh. As a part of the deal, Reliance will get 500 MW of generation capacity for captive use from the plant. This is the first time that the two billionaires have collaborated in a business setting.
“Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd (APL), has entered into a 20-year long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for 500 MW with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), under the captive user policy as defined under the Electricity Rules, 2005,” Adani Power said in a stock market filing. “This development brings between two corporates an exclusive arrangement for 500 MW of power purchase by Reliance Industries on a long-term basis,” the filing added.
Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani both have big investments in the power and green energy space. The Adani Group runs companies including Adani Power and Adani Green Energy which focus on power generation and transmission. The Adani Group is also India’s largest solar power producer, and the world’s largest wind-solar hybrid developer. Reliance, on the other hand, has announced investments of Rs. 75,000 crore in the energy space, and is building four gigafactories at Jamnagar in Gujarat — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells.
Energy generation isn’t the only sector that are being simultaneously eyed by the two billionaires. Gautam Adani had recently purchased 400 MHz spectrum in the 26 GHz telecom band, which could be thought to be a challenge to Ambani’s Jio business. The Adani Group was also reportedly building a super app, which could’ve competed with Jio’s suite of apps. In recent years, Adani has pipped Ambani twice to become India’s richest man, a title that Ambani has held for over a decade.
The two families, however, are reportedly close, and Gautam Adani was one of the guests at Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant’s wedding celebrations in Jamnagar. And the businessmen are now partners in a power plant in Madhya Pradesh. This could only be good news for the nation — in the US, the two richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are currently competing with each other in taking humanity to space. India’s two richest men, on the other hand, seem to be collaborating to bring a green energy revolution right here in India.