The Ambani family's Mumbai tower, Antilia, cost $1 billion to build. Check out the world's most expensive private residence. (2024)

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The Ambani family’s pre-wedding festivities captured the world’s attention this month.

The Ambani family caught the world's attention this month with pre-wedding festivities for son Anant that included a private Rihanna concert and meals prepared by 100 chefs.

Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding party had tons of high-profile guests.

High-profile guests, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, flocked to Jamnagar, India, to toast the marriage of Anant, whose father, Mukesh, is reported to be worth $113 billion.

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Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita have three children.

Isha and Akash are twins, and they're the oldest Ambani children. Anant is their younger brother. It's unclear who lives at Antilia full-time, though the Huffington Post reported that the home required a staff of 600.

Mukesh Ambani is considered India's richest man.

Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of the energy, retail, and media conglomerate Reliance Industries and is considered India's richest man. The tower he custom-built sits on Altamount Road, the Billionaires' Row of Mumbai.

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The Ambani family’s Mumbai residence is the most expensive home in the world.

The Ambani family's home is the most expensive private residence in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (Other rankings put it second, after Buckingham Palace.)

The tower is called Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 400,000-square-foot structure is officially 27 stories high, although its many double-height ceilings mean it's closer in height to a traditional 40-story building.

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Antilia cost $1 billion to build.

The Ambanis' house was constructed between 2006 and 2010, according to Architectural Digest India. At the time, it cost an estimated $1 billion to build, but there's no way of knowing what the tower is worth today.

Inside Antilia, there are 9 elevators, a 50-seat cinema, and a full-service spa.

… Plus, the tower has a 168-car garage and is equipped with three helipads.

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Antilia opened in February 2010.

But in 2011, The New York Times reported Mumbai's elite were speculating that the Ambanis hadn't yet moved into the tower. Antilia, one expert said, didn't align with Hindu architectural philosophy.

There's luxury art inside Antilia.

In 2020, Vogue India cataloged some high-end art inside the Ambani house, including work by the modern Indian artist Francis Newton Souza and "Love" sculptor Robert Indiana.

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Antilia was a site of celebration in early 2024.

The Ambani family hosted a light show at Antilia in January 2024 in honor of the historic inauguration of Ram Mandir, a gigantic new temple in the ancient city of Ayodhya.

Holograms of religious sayings adorned the building. Visitors flocked to see the bedazzled tower and get close to one of India's most iconic homes.

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Antilia's opulence has drawn criticism.

In 2011, Ratan Tata, another one of India's richest men, told the Times of India: "It's sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have."

Correction: March 7, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the age of Anant Ambani. He's the youngest son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, not the eldest. It also misidentified one of the people in a photo from the family's pre-wedding celebrations. It's Paula Hurd, not Melinda French Gates.