Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia, is known for playing it big. Be it the oil, chemical business or telecommunication business or retailing business – Ambani is at the top across all industries that he is present in and has established a practical monopoly. And, his latest venture puts him in direct competition with Elon Musk – the CEO of Tesla.
In the last few years, Ambani, who has been traditionally known for keeping a low profile and staying away from emerging businesses like information technology, has played at the front foot. Since the tremendous success of Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani has not only become more media savvy but also started acquisition, which he, until recently, had traditionally stayed away from.
Most recently, Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Industries would be entering the business of battery manufacturing given the growing acceptability of electric vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuels-supported transportation.
Given the growing use of electricity due to various incentives provided by governments across the world in order to minimise carbon emission, energy storage is set to become a major industry. And, Mukesh Ambani does want to miss this opportunity just like he missed on the IT boom.
Moreover, Ambani made an investment of 25.76 million dollars in skyTran, which makes pod taxis and is a competitor of the Elon Musk-led Hyperloop. “skyTran has developed breakthrough passive magnetic levitation and propulsion technology for implementing personal transportation systems aimed at solving the problem of traffic congestion globally,” said Reliance in the regulatory filing after acquiring a majority stake in the company.
Both new ventures that Mukesh Ambani is seeking, put him in direct competition with Elon Musk, the US-based billionaire who has become a global icon of high-technology industries, thanks to his highly successful PR strategy.
A few weeks ago, Musk set up an office in Bangalore and said that his company would set up a Tesla Gigafactory in India for domestic consumption as well as export in the neighbouring countries. In the countries where Tesla is present, it not only sells cars but also established storage and charging infrastructure because, in most of the regions around the world, these facilities are in a primitive stage.
Therefore, just like Jeff Bezos, Ambani will be in direct competition with Elon Musk in the energy and transportation business. Ambani is already competing with Bezos in the e-commerce market and his next battle will be against Elon Musk.
Only Ambani can afford to compete with two of the richest and most successful entrepreneurs of not just the United States but of the world at large.
There is not an iota of doubt among analysts that Ambani-led Reliance will give a tough competition to American tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, as the history of its operations in other sectors suggests. The upcoming years will give us a good show on the competition in the Indian market, especially between the richest man in Asia – Mukesh Ambani and the richest man in the world- Elon Musk.
Much-like his father, Mukesh Ambani is also known to work for monopoly in the markets. In the early days of the business, his father monopolised the thread-making business, and Mukesh has himself done the same in the refining and petrochemical business. Now, his company is trying to monopolise the telecommunication market and also venturing into other emerging industries with similar intentions.