The business story
Mukesh Ambani (born 19 April 1957 in Aden) is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the conglomerate founded by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani. A chemical engineer from Mumbai’s UDCT, he left an MBA at Stanford in 1980 to join Reliance, where he led the building of the Jamnagar refinery complex. After his father’s death in 2002, the group was divided between him and his brother Anil. He launched Jio in 2016 with free voice and cheap 4G data, reshaping India’s telecom market; in 2020 Jio Platforms raised about ₹1.52 lakh crore from Meta, Google and global funds, and in October 2026 it listed on the Indian exchanges after a ₹30,213 crore IPO. His children Akash, Isha and Anant led the IPO process.
Early life and background
Mukesh Ambani was born on 19 April 1957 in Aden, the son of Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded Reliance. He trained as a chemical engineer at Mumbai's UDCT and enrolled in an MBA at Stanford, which he left in 1980 to join the family business. Inside the group he led the construction of Reliance's refinery complex at Jamnagar, described as the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery.
After Dhirubhai's death in 2002, the group was split between Mukesh and his brother Anil. Mukesh is chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, which spans oil-to-chemicals, retail, new energy and digital services.
Building Reliance Jio
Jio is the defining bet of his tenure. It went live to the public on 5 September 2016 with a promotional period of free voice and data, an all-4G network with no legacy 2G or 3G layers, and very low data prices. It signed up 16 million customers in its first month and passed 100 million in February 2017.
Rivals pushed back. Bharti Airtel told the Competition Commission of India the free offers were predatory; in June 2017 the commission found no prima facie case. The wider market consolidated: Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merged, smaller operators exited, and private competition narrowed to three players. The prospectus for Jio's listing put its share of mobile broadband customers at nearly half.
The launch was paid for from Reliance's balance sheet, and by 2019 the group carried heavy debt. In 2020 Jio Platforms sold just under a third of itself for about ₹1.52 lakh crore to investors including Meta, Google, Silver Lake, KKR and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. In 2019 Ambani had told shareholders a listing would follow within five years. It arrived on 28 October 2026: a ₹30,213 crore issue, reported as India's largest IPO, made up entirely of new shares, with most proceeds earmarked to repay Jio's borrowings. His children Akash, Isha and Anant led the process, and Reliance kept about 64.5 per cent.
