In a first collaboration between rival billionaires, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has picked up a 26 per cent stake in a Madhya Pradesh power project of Gautam Adani and signed a pact to use the plant’s 500 mw of electricity for captive use.

Reliance will pick up 5 crore equity shares in Mahan Energen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, of face value Rs 10 at par (Rs 50 crore) and will use 500 mw of generation capacity for captive use, the two companies have said in separate stock exchange filings.

The two businessmen hailing from Gujarat have often been pitted by media and commentators against each other. But they have for years tiptoed around each other to reach the top two rungs of Asia’s wealth ladder.

With Mr Ambani’s interests spanning oil and gas to retail and telecom and Mr Adani’s focus on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining, they have rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business where the two have announced multi-billion-dollar investments.

Mr Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, while Reliance is building four gigafactories in Jamnagar in Gujarat – one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen and fuel cells.