The business empires of Asia's 2 richest men may soon be on course for a titanic collision. Here's how the tycoons' wealth, businesses, and properties stack up.

Mukesh Ambani (L) and Gautam Adani (R) have grown their empires for years without competing directly with each other.

Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto via Getty Images and Prodip Guha/Getty Images

• Asia's two richest men are on course to competing directly with each other, Bloomberg reported.
• Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have historically built their wealth without butting heads.
• The two moguls, worth a combined $219 billion, own two of India's largest companies.

Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani grew their empires separately for years, but a new report highlighted signs that a momentous clash could be drawing ever closer.

A girl walks past a Reliance Jio store in Kolkata, India, 03 March, 2021.

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Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have both enjoyed a meteoric rise in wealth in the last decade, dominating India's energy, infrastructure, retail, and defense development industries.

Though they operate in some of the same industries, Adani and Ambani's gigantic multi-sector companies have steered clear of direct competition with one another.

However, Bloomberg reported on Monday that Ambani's aides received word in June that Adani was planning to bid for India's first 5G airwaves — intruding upon one of Ambani's company's main pillars of business.

While Ambani's Reliance Industries is one of India's largest telecom companies, wireless telecommunication is new territory for the Adani Group, Bloomberg reported.

Ambani ultimately declined to challenge Adani's bid, but their recent near-miss is giving rise to speculation that the two giants will eventually clash as they mop up more industries, the outlet reported.

We took a look at each of the two billionaires business empires, fortunes, and real-estate investments. Representatives for Ambani and Adani did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

NET WORTH: Gautam Adani is the newly crowned richest man in Asia, and the world's biggest wealth gainer this year.

Gautam Adani (R) interacts Chief economic advisor Amit Mitra (L) during sixth edition of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) with industrial stalwarts and representatives from 49 countries at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, New Town on April 20, 2022 in Kolkata, India.

Samir Jana/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Adani is worth $126 billion, making him richer than Warren Buffett, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Once a college dropout, he overtook Ambani in February as the richest man in Asia, after his wealth skyrocketed by $12 billion in the first two months of 2022. Adani has added $49.9 billion to his net worth so far this year.

Mukesh Ambani, the second-richest person in Asia, is a renowned industrialist and energy mogul who recently started dominating India's telecom space.

Mukesh Ambani and his family attend the IPL opening celebration in 2010.

Prodip Guha/Getty Images

Ambani is currently worth $92.9 billion, making him the second-richest person in Asia, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He nearly tripled his wealth during the COVID-19 pandemic — his net worth was around $36 billion in 2020, per Forbes.

Ambani's telecom company, Jio Infocomm, has seen a meteoric rise: It claims to have accrued more than 350 million subscribers in the first five years after its launch in 2015. Last year, Jio Infocomm was estimated to have around 426 million subscribers, according to the company's latest annual reports.

BUSINESS EMPIRE: Adani Group, a powerhouse in energy, logistics, and renewal resources, saw profits soar over the last few years.

Wespro, India's largest state-of-the-art coal terminal at the Adani Port in Gujarat, India.

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The Adani Group, founded in 1988, is Adani's multi-industry powerhouse firm based in India. Its share price has jumped nearly ten-fold since August 2020, and the company hit $200 billion in market value in April.

Adani Group's ports and terminals are its hallmark trade. Adani first developed a port in 1995 in his home province of Gujarat, and it claims to be India's largest private commercial port. It now operates alongside 12 other Adani ports and terminals along India's coast. 

The organization also has businesses in power-grid distribution, gas, solar, and thermal power, data centers, real estate, airports, water management, retail for fruit and edible oils, and financial services, according to its annual report.

Adani's recent success is often attributed to his companies moving in lockstep with India's leadership.

The Adani Group made significant gains this year by expanding beyond coal and fossil fuels, investing billions into green energy industries as Prime Minister Narendra Modi also pushes India toward renewable power.

Modi has also established a vision for India to boost its defence equipment exports and lower its dependence on foreign military supplies. Meanwhile, Adani Group has started developing UAVs, small arms and ammo, and counter drone technology, helping it secure contracts with the Indian Armed Forces.

Ambani's Reliance Industries is a heavyweight in oil and gas. It also owns India's biggest telco.

Of the 1,394 petrol pumps that Reliance operates, 518 are company owned and the remaining dealer operated,RIL outperforms industry in petrol, diesel sales from its 1,400-odd outlets, near Kolkata in 2020.

Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Ambani's Reliance Industries started growing exponentially around 2014, according to its annual reports, putting it ahead of the Adani Group in its rise to prominence.

In 2020, it became the first Indian company to cross an estimated $200 billion in market value, although the Adani Group also achieved that milestone this year.

Reliance Industries has delved into fewer sectors than the Adani Group, focusing instead on several core pillars such as gas production, media and entertainment, digital services, retail stores, and oil refinement — its biggest business, per its 2021 annual report.

Its oil refining ventures alone raked in $40 billion in revenue last year, the report states.

The 38-year-old company operates India's largest telecom network through Jio Infocomm, which has grown by 120 million subscribers since the pandemic began.

Its vast retail network of branded stores for toys, jewelry, clothing, and groceries covers at least 33.8 million square feet in total, per its annual report.

SPENDING HABITS: Adani keeps his wealth and assets low key, but reports say he owns at least three private jets, travels by chopper, and has a $50 million bungalow.

AW-139 model helicopter by Italian-British manufacturer AgustaWestland is seen during the 8th International Helicopter Industry Exhibition HeliRussia 2015, at the Crocus Expo Center, on May 21, 2015, in Moscow, Russia. International helicopter industry exhibition HeliRussia will take place in the comfortable walls of the IEC Crocus Expo on May 21-23, 2015.

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Little of Adani's lifestyle or spending is publicly known. Older news reports, such as a 2011 article from India's Economic Times, say that Adani built a helipad in his home and regularly travels via helicopter instead of on the road.

The Economic Times reported that one of these choppers is the Agusta Westland A139, a 15-seat twin-engined helicopter that's marketed as both a luxury travel option as well as a vehicle for law enforcement or fire and rescue work. The chopper can cost up to $9.65 million, according to aircraft sales website AVBuyer. 

In 2012, the outlet reported that Adani owns three private jets — a Canadian Challenger 605, an Embraer Legacy 650, and a Hawker Beechcraft 850XP. 

NDTV reported in 2020 that Adani purchased a $50 million residential property in New Delhi, citing a bid by his company. But while Ambani has given tours of his luxurious home before, the exact location and features of Adani's home are not publicly known.

On social media, Adani shies away from flashy posts. One of the only personal photos he's ever tweeted was of him and his family celebrating his birthday with a cake at home.

Ambani's family lives in a 27-floor mansion replete with helicopter pads, a snow room, and a garage for 168 cars.

The twenty-seven storey Antilia is seen in Mumbai on October 19, 2010. The 400,000 square foot residence, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic, is expected to be occupied by Ambani, his wife and three children later in the year. The building has three helicopter pads, underground parking for 160 cars, and requires some 600 staff to run.

INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images

Ambani's home, fleet of luxury vehicles, family events, and vacations have been the subject of vast public scrutiny.

He and his family live in Antilia, a 400,000-square-foot mansion with 27 floors, three helipads, a 168-car garage, nine elevators, and a snow room, per Architectural Digest.

According to The South China Morning Post, it takes around 600 staff to run Antilia and maintain its ballroom, temple, and 50-seat theater.

The outlet also reported that Antilia is outfitted with a snow room that pumps artificial snow on demand, as well as its own ice cream parlor.

Ambani made international headlines in 2018, when it was said that the wedding of his daughter, Isha Ambani, cost around $100 million. The 600 attendees of the high-profile event included Beyoncé, Hillary Clinton, Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan, and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.

Ambani also owns more than 170 luxury cars, including a $2 million Rolls-Royce Cullinan with a $128,000 paint job, per Luxury Launches, an Indian lifestyle news website.

Recently, Ambani booked his family into suites at Switzerland's luxurious Bürgenstock Resort at around $74,000 per night in July.

Ambani did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

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