Rajasthan Royals' Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, right, and batting partner Rajasthan Royals' Yashasvi Jaiswal touch gloves before the start of the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Rajasthan Royals in Lucknow, India, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)

The Associated Press.

Two Indian tycoons, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Adar Poonawalla, son of vaccine billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, have teamed up to buy the Rajasthan Royals in a deal valued at $1.65 billion, as competition heats up for Indian Premier League’s cricket teams.

Under the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, Mittal and his family will buy a 75% stake in the cricket team, while Poonawalla will acquire 18% from existing investors led by British-Indian entrepreneur, Manoj Badale, who along with other investors will retain the remaining 7%, according to a statement released over the weekend.

"I love cricket and my family is from Rajasthan, so there is no Indian Premier League team that I would rather be part of than the Rajasthan Royals," Mittal said in the statement.

The Rajasthan Royals were previously set to be sold to a consortium led by U.S.-based entrepreneur Kal Somani for $1.6 billion. The group was backed by billionaire Rob Walton, owner of the Denver Broncos, and the Hamp family, led by Sheila Ford Hamp of the Detroit Lions. However, the deal ultimately fell through, according to local media reports.

Mittal, his son Aditya, ​and ⁠daughter Vanisha Mittal-Bhatia, and Poonawalla will join the Rajasthan Royals’ board following completion of the deal. The acquisition will include the team’s sister franchises ​Paarl Royals in South Africa's SA20 competition and Barbados ‌Royals ⁠in the Caribbean Premier League.

"Rajasthan Royals is a premier IPL franchise with a strong legacy, and I look forward to supporting its continued growth and long-term success," Poonawalla said.

Poonawalla previously bidded for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) but withdrew from the final bidding process. RCB was eventually acquired by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and U.S. private equity giant Blackstone, which teamed up with other investors to buy the IPL team from United Spirits—a unit of Diageo—for 167 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) in March.

Mittal and Poonawalla will join other high-profile IPL team owners, including Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Industries owns the Mumbai Indians. Other Indian tycoons have also invested in cricket teams such as the Delhi Capitals, which is co-owned by Parth Jindal and G.M. Rao, and the Lucknow Super Giants, owned by Sanjiv Goenka.

Mittal, with an estimated net worth of $28.8 billion according to Forbes’ real-time data, is among the country’s wealthiest tycoons. He is the executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel and mining company by output. In 2021, he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to his son, Aditya Mittal. His partner in the deal, Adar Poonawalla, leads Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer. Founded in 1966 by his father, Cyrus who has a real-time net worth of $26.2 billion