The Ambani family is now the talk of the world with the dazzling and star-studded presence in Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding celebrations. From Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg to Rihanna’s concert – the spectacles at Jamnagar were one for the ages.  One might think, what is the limit for Asia’s richest man? There are several interesting facts behind the meteoric rise of Mukesh Ambani and the conglomerate Reliance is today. And the story doesn’t even start in India.  Few Lesser Known Facts About the Ambani Family  Born in a Foreign Land  Dhirubhai Ambani was working in Aden (present-day Yemen) where Mukesh was born in 1957. Dhirubhai with his family decided to move back to India in 1958 to start his own business, seeding the foundation of Reliance.  Read more: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani 'setting up family office in Singapore' A Match Made in Bharatanatyam  Contrary to popular belief, Mukesh and Nita Ambani didn’t cross paths first. Instead, it was Dhirubhai and Kokilaben who first noticed Nita during a Bharatanatyam performance. Dhirubhai later approached Nita’s father Ravindrabhai Dalal for her hand in marriage to his son.  Birthday Unlike Any Other  It is rumored that Mukesh Ambani doesn’t like to celebrate his birthdays. But when it comes to family and the love of his life, there is no one quite like him. On the 44th birthday of Nita Ambani, Mukesh reportedly gifted her an Airbus (A319) luxury private jet estimated to be worth around 240 Crore INR.  Welcoming the First Daughter-in-Law  The razzle-dazzle of a wedding in Ambani house is nothing new. Ambanis welcomed their first daughter-in-law Shloka Mehta in 2019 as Akash and Shloka tied the knot in a big fat Indian wedding. It was reported that Nita Ambani gifted the ‘Mouawad L'Incomparable’ to Shloka, the 91-diamond studded necklace estimated at 451 Crore INR.  Read more: India's Mukesh Ambani kickstarts dynastic succession A House Fit for the Ambani  Mukesh Ambani with his wife and two sons live in the luxurious Antilla, the 27-storied fabled home in Mumbai. The 4.6 billion USD building is the most expensive private residence in the world, a fitting abode for Asia’s richest family.  Family at the Heart of Everything  The Ambanis are tied by a strong sense of familial obligations. Mukesh Ambani often stated how important it is for him to spend at least a day in the week with his mother, wife, and children. The bond of family is further extrapolated by the fact that there’s at least a photo of the family or Dhirubhai Ambani in each room of Antilla.  5 Rupees Pocket Money  In an interview with iDiva, Nita Ambani revealed that she used to give Akash, Isha, and Anant only 5 rupees as pocket money for an entire week. Nita reflected that it was her way of teaching the children to value money and stay grounded no matter what. Nita draws inspiration from her middle-class background and wants to instill the same in the heirs.  Read more: India to export $500bn green energy by 2042, Ambani says Nita Ambani’s Philanthropy  Nita Ambani has been spearheading Reliance’s philanthropic activities through the Reliance Foundation. She even resigned from the board of Reliance Industries in 2003 to focus more on philanthropic projects. Under her guidance, Reliance Foundation completed the Jamnagar Township Project and Dhirubhai Ambani International School.  Humble in Gastronomy  People are often surprised by the fact that Mukesh Ambani is a vegetarian. Even before heading the Reliance Industries, Mukesh was known for his humble and modest lifestyle and behavior. It’s a trait that has carried on to the Ambani heirs as well. In addition to being a vegetarian, Mukesh is often spotted dining with his family at traditional and less pretentious restaurants. The Ties of Friendship  The value of trust and fellowship goes beyond the family for Mukesh. Mukesh’s two close friends from college days, Anand Jain and Manoj Modi became key instruments in Reliance’s growth. Today both Jain and Modi closely work with the third generation of the Ambanis to get them started in the business.  Read more: Ambani pays 22K USD a month for top govt security in India The Sports Connection  Ambanis aren’t all about industries and philanthropies. The family has been a strong patron of sports, especially Nita Ambani. The IPL franchise Mumbai Indians is owned by Nita. Reliance Group also holds the ownership of the Indian Super League. For her patronage of sports, Nita Ambani received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Award in 2017. Ivy-League Education  As the heir to the Reliance empire, the three children Akash, Isha, and Anant were expected to lead by example. And they did so splendidly. The three siblings had their early education in Dhirubhai Ambani International School. Akash and Anant both completed their bachelor’s from Brown University. Isha pursued a bachelor's in psychology at Yale University and later completed her MBA from Stanford.  Z+ Security  Being the richest man in India comes with its set of perils. In 2013, Mukesh Ambani got death threats which prompted the government to issue Z+ security for him and his family members.  Read more: India's biggest sibling rivalry between Ambani brothers to end soon? Vantara: Protecting the Wildlife  Anant Ambani is noted for being an animal lover. His concern for wildlife and nature is seen all around. Recently, the youngest of the Ambanis has taken up the ambitious project of Vantara, a 3000-acre wildlife sanctuary at Jamnagar. Vantara is expected to be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to take care of the animals and promote thriving flora and fauna in the region.  The Life of Dhirubhai in a Movie  The 2007 Mani Ratnam-directed film Guru is said to be loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. The movie tells the beautiful tale of how a man from a village can go on to create the largest conglomerate in India by his sheer will and determination to never give up.  Final Words  Being the richest family in Asia, the Ambanis never dissociated themselves from the masses. Their philanthropic activities and large-scale industrial operations have made them a key driver in India’s economic growth. As the third generation of the Ambanis walks the precedence set by their father and grandfather, it is safe to assume that Reliance will not lose its vision.  Read more: Mukesh Ambani no longer among world's top 10 richest billionaires

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said he will give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime, becoming the latest billionaire to pledge to donate much of his vast fortune. Bezos, whose “real-time” worth Forbes magazine estimates at roughly $124.1 billion, made the announcement in a joint CNN interview with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez that was released on Monday. The billionaire didn’t specify how - or to whom - he will give away the money, but said the couple were building the “capacity” to do it. “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” Bezos said during the interview. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work and very smart teammates. And I’m finding - and Lauren’s finding - that philanthropy is very similar. It’s not easy. It’s really hard.” Read: Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List: India’s Gautam Adani overtakes Jeff Bezos again Bezos had been criticized in the past for not signing the Giving Pledge, the campaign launched by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth through philanthropy. His ex-wife McKenzie Scott signed that pledge in 2019 and has since emerged as a formidable force in the world of philanthropy, showering charities throughout the country with unexpected - and often secretive - contributions. In the past three years, she’s given more than $12 billion to historically Black colleges and universities, women’s rights group and other nonprofits. Bezos, who divorced from Scott in 2019, stepped down as Amazon CEO last year to devote more time to philanthropy and other projects. Among other donations, he’s pledged $10 billion to fight climate change as part of his Bezos Earth Fund initiative. Last year, he gave $510.7 million to charity, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Read: 3 Bangladeshi companies on Forbes list On Saturday, Bezos and Sanchez announced they will give a no-strings-attached $100 million grant to singer Dolly Parton, who’s been praised for her philanthropic work that helped create the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19. Bezos had given a similar grant to chef José Andrés and CNN commentator Van Jones last year.

Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s wealth increased after stocks gained for two weeks in a row and outpaced Wall Street shares. As a result, he now occupies the third position on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once more. NDTV reported that Gautam Adani’s wealth increased by $314 million on Monday (October 31, 2022), bringing it to $131.9 billion – making him the third richest person in the world according to Forbes, after Bernard Arnault of Louis Vuitton, who maintains the second slot with a net worth of $156.5 billion. After Amazon predicted dismal holiday sales last Thursday (October 27, 2022), sending shares of the largest retailer in the world tumbling in after-hours trade, the Forbes list also showed a dramatic decline in Jeff Bezos' fortune. Read more: Forbes Highest-paid Footballers 2022: Mbappe overtakes Messi, Ronaldo Although Adani surpassed Jeff Bezos, whose net worth was $126.9 billion, the rankings on the Forbes list have been fluctuating recently, echoing the turmoil in the larger global stock markets, with gains and losses. Gautam Adani, Bernard Arnault, and Jeff Bezos have had readings similar to a musical chairs game for the second, third, and fourth richest spots in recent weeks, but Elon Musk has kept far ahead and is the world’s richest, with a net worth of $223.8 billion. The NDTV reports adds that Gautam Adani’s company would spend more than $150 billion in sectors including renewable energy, data centres, airports, and healthcare as it strives to join the exclusive club of corporations with $1 trillion valuation. Read more: 3 Bangladeshi companies on Forbes list

Becoming a billionaire is everyone’s dream. Who doesn’t like to live a life of luxury with access to all the amenities there can be? However, the path to becoming a billionaire isn’t easy. And that stands true even more for people who are self-made billionaires. The sheer effort and odds that requires to be defied are truly commendable. Let's take a look at the world’s 10 self-made youngest billionaires in 2021. Austin Russell The 26-year-old CEO of Luminar Technologies is the youngest self-made billionaire on the Forbes list for 2021. He’s also received the prestigious fellowship by the billionaire investor Peter Thiel in 2012 to drop out of college and start his own venture. His tech firm, Luminar Technologies develops optical sensors for autonomous vehicles. As of 2021, companies like Toyota and Volvo have used Lidar-based technology in their cars. The billionaire shot his way to the list after his company started trading in NASDAQ in December 2020 through a SPAC merger. He is currently valued at 2.4 billion dollars. Read The 7 Most Promising Tech Startups in Bangladesh Ritesh Agarwal The story of Ritesh Agarwal is a truly fascinating case of rags to riches. Ritesh had a very humble beginning and dropped out of college in 2011 to pursue his plans of budget accommodations. Soon after in 2012, he got accepted into the Peter Thiel fellowship program and launched his own company, OYO rooms in 2013. Since then, it has been a smooth sail for him. By the end of 2018, OYO rooms were valued at over 1 billion dollars. Soon after in 2019, Ritesh tripled his stakes in the business through share purchases and in the process saw his valuation rise to 1.1 billion dollars. Currently, he is the second-youngest self-made billionaire in the world. Evan Spiegel The CEO of Snap Inc., Spiegel is more commonly known as the founder of the popular social media platform Snapchat. He jointly developed the app with two of his classmates, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown when he was studying at Stanford. Soon after its initial release in 2012, the app grew by leaps and bounds reaching over 1 million users by the end of 2012. The popularity of the platform continued to grow and Spiegel became the youngest billionaire for the year 2015 in Forbes List after Snap Inc. went public. He is also one of the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company. Currently, his net valuation stands at 11.1 billion dollars. Read Digital Currency: Benefits and Risks of the Cashless Economy in Bangladesh John Collison John Collison is the cofounder of Stripe, a financial service that primarily operates for the digital payment in e-commerce platform as well as building different application programming interfaces. John and his brother started with their first venture, Shuppa, and Auctomatic which was a software company primarily developing tools for e-bay back in 2008. They co-founded stripe in 2010 which received funding from CapitalG and General Catalyst. The company was also backed by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in its initial days. The investment made the company to be valued at over 9 billion dollars which took John’s net worth to 1.1 billion dollars. He was the youngest self-made billionaire on the Forbes List of 2016. Bobby Murphy Bobby Murphy is the co-founder of Snap Inc. along with Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown. Originally belonging to the same Sigma Kappa fraternity at Stanford University, Murphy and Spiegel first had a failed venture called Future Freshman which worked to advise the new graduates on career choices. Later both of them worked on a photo disappearing app called Picaboo which later became Snapchat. Murphy spearheaded the engineering division of Snapchat as well as working with the Snap Labs team to develop the spectacles, their flagship camera glasses. At the time of the IPO, Murphy and Brown both had over 45% control of the share. Murphy is currently estimated to be worth 10.2 billion dollars. Read Top Insurance Companies in Bangladesh in 2021 Mark Zuckerberg Probably the most well-known name on the list, Mark Zuckerberg is an American media magnate and the founder of Facebook. Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York. Since his early days, he showed a glimpse of his talents through various activities. When kids his age were busy playing games, Zuckerberg was into making them. He entered Harvard with a keen interest in software development. However, he soon dropped out to pursue the development of Face Smash which was renamed Facebook later on. Today Facebook Inc. controls several social media sites like Instagram and Whatsapp that drive the largest share of social media traffic in the world. Zuckerberg was the youngest billionaire in 2007 and with a net worth of over 117 billion dollars, he is currently the 5th richest person in the world. Dustin Moskovitz Dustin Moskovitz was one of four co-founders of Facebook. He was born in Gaines Florida and attended Harvard with a major in Economics. However, he left Harvard just after two years to work full-time for Facebook in Palo Alto. In its initial days, Moskovitz was the first chief technology officer of Facebook and subsequently, the vice president of engineering. He led a team of engineers who designed the interface of the platform and gave it a shape as we all know it to be today. He also played a key role in developing the mobile version of the platform. Moskovitz left Facebook to pursue other ventures and in 2011, he was the youngest self-made billionaire based on his 2.34% stake at Facebook. Currently, he is valued at 19.2 billion dollars. Read Online Business: How to Get Started from Home? Nathan Blecharczyk Nathan Blecharczyk is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb. Blecharczyk was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard. Initially, he started his career as an engineer at Opnet technologies. He along with Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea of Airbnb. Though initially failing to raise capital, the project came into the attention of the Y combinator and was soon fast-tracked into their seed funding program. Blecharczyk played a key role in the development of the initial interface of Airbnb and soon after transitioned into the position of CTO of the organization. Blecharczyk is currently valued at 13.3 billion dollars. Pavel Durov Pavel Durov is an entrepreneur from Russia who is also the founder of the popular social media platform VK. Since being removed from the position of CEO of VK, he is known for his continued effort to ensure the data safety of the users which is believed to be the reason for his fall out with VK. Durov was born in Leningrad and attended St Petersburg University. After his dismissal from VK, he went on to become a citizen of St Kitts and Neves. He then founded the end-to-end encrypted messaging platform Telegram. Currently, Durov is valued at 17.2 billion dollars which are largely driven by his control of Telegram. Read Ways of Affiliate Marketing while Staying in Bangladesh Patrick Collison The co-founder of Stripe and brother of John Collison, Patrick Collison is a key stakeholder of Stripe. Born in Ireland, Collison had a knack for software and AI from his early days. He decided to participate in the 40th Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with his AI-powered project called Issac. The innovative ideas continued with the foundation of Shuppa and later Auctomatic. Collison later attended MIT and has been a key figure in the development of Stripe. Currently, he is valued at 11.4 billion dollars. Bottom Line With Forbes estimating a new billionaire being made every 17 hours, it's only natural that young people would take a stride in this list. However, this list consists of people that defied all odds to establish themselves on the global map as well as contribute to the social causes. Read The Difference between a Startup and a Small Business