Jack Ma Dethrones Ambani as Asia’s Richest Billionaire

Billions were lost

Asia's richest billionaire

With all the conspiracies around Coronavirus, we might have another one soon as the virus changed who Asia’s richest billionaire is. The Chinese eccentric billionaire Jack Ma dethroned India’s energy tycoon, Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest billionaire. But at what cost?

Turns out billions were lost, about 5.8 billion dollars to be exact. Why though? Is it really because all the hype around the Coronavirus has taken away from Ambani’s investments in oil?


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On the other hand, innovative businesses like Jack Ma’s Alibaba are flourishing.

While the virus has hit manufacturing and supply chains in China, which affected Jack Ma’s Alibaba. This was compensated by the increased demand for Alibaba’s cloud computing services and mobile apps.

The 2018 King of the Hill, Jack Ma is now back on top with a net worth of $44.5 billion. That’s 2.6 billion dollars more than Mukesh Ambani’s.

The Crown is Restored

When Jack Ma was previously crowned Asia’s richest billionaire by Bloomberg, he lost that title in mid-2018.

Now the founder of Alibaba Group moves from his No. 2 position back on top as oil prices hit an all-time low in 29 years.


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Good thing for Ambani that both Saudi Arabia and Russia are having a dispute on oil price and production cuts.

It’s not just the temporary price slump that led to Ambani’s fall from the top. His flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. had promised to cut net debt to zero by early 2021.

They didn’t expect the virus and their plans to go haywire. Affecting Reliance’s stock market price is not all the virus did. It also halted Ambani’s plans to sell stocks in his Reliance Industries Ltd. to Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s biggest crude producer.