Delhi is home to some of India’s biggest fortunes, but one name sits clearly at the top: Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL Technologies. In 2026 he remains not just the richest person in the national capital but among the very richest in the entire country. This guide covers who he is, exactly how his wealth was built, the succession that has passed HCL to his daughter, his standing as India’s most generous philanthropist, and — the part most relevant to anyone reading a South Delhi property site — where the capital’s wealthiest families actually choose to live.
Key Takeaways
- Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL Technologies, is Delhi’s richest man, with a net worth reported by Forbes in the region of $37 billion.
- He co-founded HCL in 1976 in a Delhi garage with an initial investment of about ₹1,87,000, building it into a global IT firm employing over 220,000 people.
- In 2020 he handed the HCL Technologies chair to his daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra — India’s first woman to chair a listed IT company.
The Answer: Shiv Nadar, Founder of HCL
Shiv Nadar tops every major rich list for the national capital. Forbes has reported his net worth in the region of $37 billion, placing him consistently among the top three or four wealthiest individuals in India and inside the world’s top 50. Hurun’s India rankings have put his wealth even higher in rupee terms — figures north of ₹3 lakh crore in recent editions — the exact number shifting with HCL Technologies’ share price, since the overwhelming majority of his fortune is held in the company he built.
To put that in perspective: Nadar’s wealth is measured in tens of billions of dollars, while Delhi’s most expensive individual homes — the Lutyens bungalows we covered in our guide to India’s most luxurious areas — trade in the hundreds of crores. In other words, his net worth could, in theory, buy a substantial share of the entire Lutyens Bungalow Zone several times over.
HCL: From a Garage to a Global IT Giant
The source of Nadar’s fortune is HCL Technologies, today one of India’s largest IT services companies. The origin story is now the stuff of Indian business legend: in 1976, Nadar and a small group of friends — among them Ajai Chowdhry and Arjun Malhotra — left their jobs and pooled roughly ₹1,87,000 to start a company, initially named Microcomp, selling teledigital calculators, before founding HCL to make microprocessors and, soon after, India’s early indigenous computers.
Over the following decades, Nadar steered the company through several reinventions — from hardware manufacturer to IT services and software powerhouse — expanding internationally from a first overseas venture in Singapore in 1980. Today HCL Technologies reports annual revenue in the range of $13–14 billion, employs well over 220,000 people across around 60 countries, and Nadar’s family controls roughly 60% of the company through promoter holdings.
The Man Behind the Fortune
Shiv Nadar was born on 14 July 1945 in Moolaipozhi village in what is now Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district. He studied electrical and electronics engineering at PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, and began his career at Cooper Engineering, part of the Walchand group, in Pune in 1967 — before leaving within a few years to strike out on his own.
Nicknamed “Magus” — an old Persian word for wizard — by his early partners, Nadar built a reputation as one of India’s genuine technology pioneers, and in 2008 was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of the country’s highest civilian honours, for his contribution to the IT industry.
The family is closely tied to Delhi’s cultural life, too. His wife, Kiran Nadar, a former competitive bridge player, is one of India’s most prominent art collectors and founded the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, which houses the family’s extensive collection of modern and contemporary Indian art. Their daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, took over as chairperson of HCL Technologies in 2020, becoming the first woman to chair a listed Indian IT company, and now ranks among India’s richest women in her own right.
India’s Most Generous Philanthropist
What genuinely sets Nadar apart from many of his billionaire peers is the scale of his giving. Through the Shiv Nadar Foundation, established in 1994, he has donated more than a billion dollars, directed overwhelmingly at education. The foundation runs Shiv Nadar University, the SSN group of engineering colleges in Chennai, and the VidyaGyan schools, which provide free residential education to gifted children from rural, economically disadvantaged families across Uttar Pradesh.
He has topped India’s philanthropy rankings on multiple occasions — in some years donating figures reported at several crore rupees per day, ahead of far more famous business names. For a man whose fortune is measured in tens of billions, it’s a giving record that stands out even at the very top of the global wealth list.
Where Do Delhi’s Richest Actually Live?
This is where the story connects directly to South Delhi. Delhi’s ultra-wealthy — industrialists, top professionals, and business families — cluster in two zones: the Lutyens Bungalow Zone of central Delhi, and South Delhi’s premium belt.
Within South Delhi, the addresses that recur among the genuinely wealthy are the ones we map in detail in our guide to where South Delhi’s rich people live: Shanti Niketan and Westend for their enormous plots and privacy, Vasant Vihar for its embassy-belt calm, and Maharani Bagh, New Friends Colony, Defence Colony, and Greater Kailash for their established-premium character. Our Greater Kailash area guide covers the most accessible entry point into this belt.
The takeaway for anyone househunting in South Delhi: you’re often shopping in the same neighbourhoods, and sometimes the same colonies, that Delhi’s wealthiest families call home — just in a different format and budget tier. A rented independent floor in Greater Kailash or Defence Colony puts you on the same tree-lined streets as some of the capital’s most established households.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the richest man in Delhi in 2026?
Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL Technologies, is Delhi’s richest man, with a net worth reported by Forbes in the region of $37 billion, making him among the top few richest people in India.
What company made Shiv Nadar wealthy?
HCL Technologies, one of India’s largest IT services companies, which Nadar co-founded in 1976 and built into a global technology firm.
Who runs HCL Technologies now?
Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Shiv Nadar’s daughter, chairs HCL Technologies; she became India’s first woman to chair a listed IT company when she took the role in 2020.
Is Shiv Nadar a philanthropist?
Yes. Through the Shiv Nadar Foundation he has donated over a billion dollars, primarily to education, and has topped India’s philanthropy rankings multiple times.
Where do Delhi’s richest people live?
Delhi’s wealthiest largely reside in Lutyens’ Delhi and South Delhi’s premium belt, including Shanti Niketan, Vasant Vihar, and Greater Kailash.
Bottom Line
Shiv Nadar’s story — from a Tamil Nadu village to a Delhi garage to a $37 billion technology fortune — is one of India’s defining business journeys, and it keeps him firmly at the top of Delhi’s wealth rankings in 2026. For South Delhi renters and buyers, the more grounded takeaway is that the capital’s wealthiest families live closer than you’d think: in the same premium South Delhi belt you can explore for rentals today, one budget tier below the bungalow zone.
Written by the South Delhi Rentwala Editorial Team, which connects Delhi’s wealth map to the real neighbourhoods renters and buyers can actually explore. Learn more about us.
Published Feb 1, 2026 · Last Updated July 9, 2026 · 8 min read