Mukesh Ambani is world's 6th richest, pips Elon Musk, Google founders

The chairman of Reliance Industries, whose wealth surpassed Warren Buffett's last week, is now worth $72.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mukesh Ambani surged past Silicon Valley tech titan Elon Musk as well as Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to become the world’s sixth-richest person.

The chairman of Reliance Industries, whose wealth surpassed Warren Buffett’s last week, is now worth $72.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Shares of the conglomerate have more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit got billions in investments from companies including Facebook, Silver Lake and, most recently, Qualcomm.

Ambani’s energy empire is slowly shifting to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India’s fast-growing digital business. The world’s second most-populous nation has seen a spike of foreign interest in its economy, especially from Silicon Valley, and Google said on Monday it will spend $10 billion in the coming years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the country.

ALSO READ: Google is in advanced talks to invest $4 billion in Jio Platforms

After a drop in US tech shares on Monday, Page’s fortune now stands at $71.6 billion, while Brin’s is at $69.4 billion and Musk is worth $68.6 billion. Buffett’s net worth dropped last week after he gave away $2.9 billion to charity.

As Sundar Pichai becomes Alphabet chief, founders get $2-bn retirement gift

The Google co-founders added more than $1 billion each to their net worth as the firm's shares rose 1.9 per cent in New York.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin just got a $2.3 billion retirement gift from investors.
The Google co-founders, who announced Tuesday they were stepping down from day-to-day management of parent Alphabet Inc, added more than $1 billion each to their net worth as the firm’s shares rose 1.9 per cent in New York.

They each own about 6 per cent of the internet giant and still control Alphabet through special voting shares.

The gains come as investors welcome Sundar Pichai’s elevation to chief executive officer of Alphabet, replacing Page in the role. It means the three most valuable US tech firms no longer have a founder at the helm.

Like Apple Inc’s Tim Cook and Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella, Pichai is a long-time lieutenant who steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder. More than 15 years after he joined the Mountain View-based company he’s replacing Page in the top job. Brin is stepping down as president, leaving Pichai as undisputed leader.

The shift reflects Google’s accession into corporate middle age. Started in a California garage by Brin and Page in 1998, the firm had revenue of $137 billion in 2018 and today boasts a market value of $893 billion. That’s behind only Apple and Microsoft on the S&P 500 Index.

Founder free

Other Silicon Valley giants are also founder free. Larry Ellison’s Oracle Corp. is headed by Safra Catz, though Ellison is still involved as the company’s chairman. Some younger companies -- such as Uber Technologies Inc. and We Co. -- have turned to outsiders amid turmoil

There are some notable exceptions. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are still at the helm of Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. respectively, which are the fourth- and fifth-largest US companies by market value.

Such a transition has proved to be a boon for Apple and Microsoft. The iPhone maker’s shares have risen by more than 400 per cent since Cook took the helm in August 2011 and Microsoft has quadrupled on Nadella’s watch.

Business Standard

Google CEO Sundar Pichai: Google not close to launch search engine in China

However, Pichai did hint at doing more in the country which is infamous for its restrictive internet policies.

Putting to rest the rumours of Google rolling out a customised version of its popular search engine service in China, CEO Sundar Pichai clarified that the company is not close to launching a search product.

However, Pichai did hint at doing more in the country which is infamous for its restrictive internet policies.

Pichai's comments follow reports about Google building a custom-version of its search engine to abide by the Chinese rules and deliver censored search results, Cnet reported.

According to the report, the secretive project, codenamed Dragonfly, led to a protest by 1,000 Google employees who objected to the company's efforts at supporting the restrictive, state-sponsored censorship.

Although Pichai has dismissed reports about not being 'close to' launching the search engine, there have been confirmed reports about Google actually working on a censored version.

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