[3] In February 2024, Ratcliffe became a minority shareholder in the English football club Manchester United and gained control over sporting operations.

Ratcliffe was born in Failsworth, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester),[4][5][6] his father worked as a joiner, and went on to run a factory that made laboratory furniture.

[20] In April 2010, Ratcliffe moved INEOS's head office from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, cutting the amount of tax the company paid by £100 million a year.

Instead, in 2019 Ratcliffe formed partnerships with BMW and Magna Steyr to design and build a similar vehicle under the codename Projekt Grenadier.

[26] He said the first units will produce clean hydrogen through the electrolysis of water in Norway, powered by renewable electricity, and will serve as a hub to provide gas for the country's transport industry.

[citation needed] In March 2019, INEOS said it would close its Middlesbrough manufacturing plant, unless it is allowed to "defer compliance" with EU rules designed to prevent air and water pollution.

[31] Ratcliffe is keen on sport and in 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert,[32] and he has founded a charity "Go Run for Fun", encouraging thousands of children aged between five and ten to get active by creating celebrity-driven events.

[33] He supported the 2019 INEOS 1:59 Challenge, a successful effort by Eliud Kipchoge to run the classic marathon distance (42.195 kilometres or 26 miles 385 yards) under 2 hours.

[37] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Roman Abramovich, long-term owner of Premier League side Chelsea, forced him to put the club up for sale.

[39] In August 2022, Ratcliffe expressed interest in buying the Premier League club Manchester United,[40] a team he has supported since childhood.

[42][43] On 24 December 2023, Manchester United announced that Ratcliffe had acquired a 25 percent stake in the club, marking a significant development, as INEOS Sport assumed control over football operations.

[46] INEOS Britannia is the British Challenger of Record representing Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd for the 37th America's Cup, being held in Barcelona in October 2024.

[49] In 2021, Greenpeace criticised a decision by New Zealand Rugby to accept six years of sponsorship from INEOS as being inconsistent with the country's "clean green" values.

[50] In May 2009, Ratcliffe was granted an honorary fellowship by the Institution of Chemical Engineers citing "his sustained leadership in building the INEOS Group.

In 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert,[32] and founded the charity Go Run for Fun, which creates celebrity-led events to encourage five-to-ten-year-olds to get physically active.

[59] In 2017, he submitted his fifth plan to build a luxury home at Thorns Beach near Beaulieu in Hampshire, which would replace an existing two-bedroom bungalow.

[64][66] He has publicly expressed his disdain for politicians, criticising them for the way they negotiated the Brexit withdrawal agreement, and how they are often "happy to lunch around with bankers" but less keen to discuss economic issues with industrialists and business owners.