Artificial intelligence (AI) has minted its first crop of Indian rich-listers. The technology debuted as a standalone category in the M3M Hurun India Rich List this edition, with 19 individuals and families commanding a combined Rs 3.07 lakh crore — and 15 of them entering the list for the first time, a measure of how quickly AI has become a wealth-creation engine.
The debutants span the technology stack. Sridhar Pinnapureddy and family of CtrlS Datacenters lead the pack at Rs 46,100 crore, followed by Yotta‘s Darshan Hiranandani at Rs 37,900 crore. Astera Labs’ Jitendra Mohan and Sanjay Gajendra entered with Rs 28,800 crore and Rs 27,600 crore, respectively, while Parag Agrawal — the former Twitter CEO — made the list with Rs 10,500 crore through Parallel Web Systems. Sarvam AI co-founders Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar feature at Rs 3,200 crore each.
The new AI money is also bigger money. “The average wealth of a new AI entrant is approximately Rs 12,100 crore — almost five times that of a new entrant in Industrial Products. From CtrlS Datacenters and Yotta to Astera Labs, Sarvam AI and Perplexity, Indian entrepreneurs are building across data centres, chips, models and applications. India’s AI wealth is emerging across the technology stack,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher, Hurun India.
Indeed, the 15 AI debutants together account for Rs 1.82 lakh crore — the highest wealth created by new entrants in any industry, against Rs 1.13 lakh crore by 44 newcomers in Industrial Products. Notably, 13 of the 19 AI listers live outside India, a marker of the global reach of Indian tech talent. Taken together, AI, Aerospace & Defence and Semiconductors account for 48 individuals worth Rs 4.26 lakh crore, including 30 new entrants. There’s even a quantum first: Nagendra Nagaraja of Bengaluru-based QpiAI debuted with Rs 1,700 crore built around quantum hardware and software.
At the top of the list, familiar names swapped places. Gautam Adani & family reclaimed the No. 1 spot with Rs 9.23 lakh crore, up 13%, pushing Mukesh Ambani & family to second at Rs 8.63 lakh crore after a 10% decline. The top 10 together held Rs 39.01 lakh crore.
LN Mittal & family vaulted eight places to third, wealth nearly doubling — up 93% to Rs 3.39 lakh crore. Cyrus S Poonawalla & family held fourth at Rs 3.03 lakh crore, while Roshni Nadar Malhotra & family slipped two places to fifth at Rs 2.79 lakh crore, though she remains the wealthiest woman on the list. Anil Agarwal & family stormed into the top 10 at ninth after an 87% surge to Rs 2.08 lakh crore, with Samir Mehta & family rounding off the ten at Rs 1.89 lakh crore.
The M3M Hurun India Rich List 2026 features 1,810 individuals across 163 cities with wealth of at least Rs 1,000 crore — 128 more than last year. Of these, 809 saw wealth rise or hold steady, 651 recorded declines, and 219 dropped off. India now counts 391 billionaires, 27 more than a year ago.