At the Business Today’s India at 100 event, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal gave a candid insight into his plans of spending his money after becoming a billionaire. Despite the newfound wealth, Aggarwal is far from splurging on luxury. Instead, he claims to be all about building more and pushing the boundaries of innovation.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Aggarwal's wealth reached $2.6 billion soon after Ola Electric's market debut. Aggarwal admitted that he’s never dabbled in the stock market.
“I’ve never bought a single share in my life,” he said. His wealth has all come from the value he’s created through his companies. Aggarwal claimed that, he and his wife have kept their money in savings accounts and fixed deposits.
But with more liquidity now, Aggarwal is finally considering dipping his toes into the stock market. “Obviously, now that I have some more liquidity, I do intend to make some smart bets in the market,” he shared. But for him, his net worth is just “a notional number.
” He added, “It’s not like it’s sitting in my bank account. I still spend my weekends at the factory, working on new products with my engineering teams. That’s what gives me satisfaction.
” When asked how he plans to spend his money, Aggarwal’s focus was clear: “More factories, more data centres, more tech, more AI.” He’s not interested in luxury but rather in reinvesting in the business. “That’s what drives me,” he said.
Aggarwal also discussed his ambitious vision for India’s role in the global energy sector. He spoke about the shift from a petroleum-based energy model to one centred on renewable energy and storage, calling it “a technology paradigm.” One of his key projects is the Bharat Cell, a cutting-edge energy storage solution developed by Ola.
“When we started Ola Electric four years ago, we decided that we would build frontier technology, not just license old technology from China or elsewhere,” he explained. The Bharat Cell is a testament to this approach, with Aggarwal describing it as “the frontier tech” in energy storage. Looking ahead, Aggarwal hopes to set up 100 gigawatt hours of energy production capacity over the next decade, a significant increase from the current 1.
5 gigawatt hours. “India will need about 1000 gigawatt hours for its own energy transition, both in grid storage and automotive, by the end of this decade or the next,” he said. His vision is to build this capacity in India and even have more to sell to the world.
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