Gautam Adani is flying closer to the sun. The Indian tycoon’s newly profitable Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) is buying SoftBank Group’s (9984.T) majority-owned Indian renewables business for $3.5 billion in cash, part of his aggressive bid to create the world’s largest clean power company by 2030. It’s rare to find someone more ambitious than the seller’s boss, Masayoshi Son, but Adani does have a track record of scaling industrial businesses in the massive emerging market. Financial details are scarce but the $707 million per gigawatt that Adani is paying for his target’s 4.95 GW of installed and under-construction capacity doesn’t look too expensive. It’s less than the implied $795 million-per-GW valuation of Goldman Sachs-backed (GS.N) ReNew Power, which RMG Acquisition Corp II (RMGB.O) determined in February had an enterprise value of $7.8 billion. Renew has more projects up and running but Adani’s vast ambition has seen his company’s shares soar 415% over the past year. Its equity alone is now worth an eye-popping $26 billion. The transaction marks the underwhelming end of another moon-shot by SoftBank boss Son, who is cashing out after six years having appeared to achieve barely a quarter of his original intentions. In 2015, he pledged to invest $20 billion to build 20 GW of Indian solar energy capacity through a joint venture with Bharti and others. On the plus side, Son will have more time to focus on his investment holding company’s primary interests in artificial intelligence. Bharti is busy firing satellites into space as a lead investor in OneWeb. The Indian tycoon has a better chance of achieving his grand ambitions. He’s seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who commendably wants to quadruple Indian renewable energy capacity to 450 GW by 2030. Adani has been scaling up fast in other sectors too: cargo processing volumes at his flagship Adani Ports (APSE.NS) has grown three times faster than the industry since 2014, his companies note. It’s a similar story in transmission, city gas distribution and airports. French energy giant Total (TOTF.PA) paid well below market value when it bought 20% of Adani Green in January. Such a level-headed investor might prevent its partner from flying too close to the sun. Follow @ugalani on Twitter CONTEXT NEWS - India’s Adani Green Energy said on May 19 it would buy SoftBank Group-backed SB Energy for an enterprise value of $3.5 billion. - Adani Green will buy the 80% stake held by SoftBank and the remaining 20% owned by Indian conglomerate Bharti Global in a cash deal. SB Energy has 4.95 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in solar, wind and hybrid generation. Of that, 1.4 gigawatts are operational, while the rest is under construction. - The deal will allow Adani Green to achieve its target of 25 gigawatts four years ahead of its previous timeline, the company said.