Several of India’s richest business leaders have seen a big drop in their wealth in 2026 so far. Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, Shapoor Mistry, and Sunil Mittal together lost nearly $21 billion, according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Meanwhile, Gautam Adani, the founder of the Adani Group, has seen little change in his net worth.
India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, lost $10 billion in notional wealth this year. He was last valued at $97.7 billion after a 10.32% drop in shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) so far in 2026.
Experts at PL Capital said RIL’s oil-to-telecom business, especially its oil-to-chemical (O2C) segment, is expected to perform steadily. Diesel demand remains strong, which should support revenues.
They added that in the short term, petrochemical profits might face pressure, but long-term prospects are positive due to global capacity reductions. RIL’s telecom business, RJIL, continues to be an important source of growth, with improving operations and strong future potential.
PL Capital valued RIL’s New Energy segment at Rs 111 per share and set a target price of Rs 1,688 for the company.
Other top billionaires also saw losses. Azim Premji of Wipro lost $3.87 billion, and Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies lost $2.93 billion, bringing their combined losses to $6.8 billion. The drop is partly due to concerns about AI technologies, which may disrupt traditional IT and business process services. Premji was last valued at $23.6 billion, and Nadar at $34.6 billion.
Overall, this year has been challenging for India’s top billionaires, with tech and energy stocks driving most of the changes in wealth.