Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani and Family

Every generation of the Ambani family has found a new industry to define.

Reliance reprices industries. Dhirubhai Ambani's work in textiles and petrochemicals gave way to the Jamnagar refinery complex, the largest single-location refinery in the world (Reliance Industries), which positioned India as a serious processor of global crude. The shift that has since mattered most was Jio's launch in 2016: by pricing mobile data near cost, the network drew 470 million subscribers and now carries more than 60% of India's mobile traffic, producing the conditions in which a domestic technology economy could develop at serious scale.

The group's current programme is its third major transition. A $75 billion investment in solar, green hydrogen and energy storage is under construction in Gujarat, with Akash leading telecom and digital services, Isha retail and financial services, and Anant new energy. The three verticals run in parallel, representing a wager that the same family can simultaneously operate India's largest private telecom network, its largest retailer, and one of its most capital-intensive clean energy projects.