Brands
Manushi Chhillar becomes face of Wella Professionals, marking a bold leap in brand expression
MUMBAI: Wella Professionals has appointed Manushi Chhillar as its new brand ambassador for India, signaling a dynamic new chapter for the heritage brand. The announcement was made during the grand finale of TrendVision 2024-25, a creative summit that brings together the best of hair artistry and fashion.
The collaboration marks Wella’s return to celebrity endorsements after years, aligning with a shift towards bolder, transformational branding. Chhillar, known for her elegance and fierce individuality, now embodies the brand’s core values of fearless self-expression, transformative beauty, and artistic excellence.
“This marks the beginning of something legendary. Manushi represents a new wave of beauty, modern, bold, and unapologetically expressive. With her as the new ambassador of Wella Professionals, we bring our vision to life: to inspire stylists to create and consumers to embrace what’s new. Everyone dreams of change, but very few dare to make it happen. Together, we will encourage people to take that leap”, said Wella India and south Asia GM Pravesh Saha.
The partnership underscores Wella’s ongoing mission to empower stylists while pushing boundaries in the hair industry. With over 140 years of legacy and innovation, Wella Professionals continues to shape trends through vibrant colour solutions and high-performance care. The brand now aims to strengthen its footprint in India through storytelling that resonates with the modern Indian consumer’s aspiration for change.
The announcement comes on the back of Wella’s top ranking in the 2023 Salon Hair Care Study published by Kline, which placed the brand at number one globally in the hair colouring products category.
Chillar’s association with Wella is expected to catalyse a fresh wave of engagement, both with stylists and consumers. Her rise from Miss World 2017 to a fashion-forward public figure has embodied resilience, evolution and grace—values that align with the ethos of Wella Professionals.
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
