A first-generation Indian entrepreneur, Gautam Adani has become the world’s third- richest person with his fortune climbing to $137.4 billion.
In the Bloomberg Billionaires Index released on 30 August, the 60-years-old Adani overtook France’s Bernard Arnault ($136 billion) and Bill Gates ($117 billion) to be ranked the third richest.
Elon Musk, with a fortune of $251.4 billion remains on the top of the ranking, followed by Jeff Bezos ($153.4 billion) – both of the US.
A college dropout, Gautam Adani is the first Asian to reach this ranking of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which China’s Jack Ma also is yet to reach.
Adani has added $60.9 billion to his fortune in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else.
India’s Mukesh Ambani(of Reliance) is at number 11 with a total worth of US$ 91.9 billion.
Adani was a Mumbai-based diamond trader before turning to coal and setting up Adani Enterprises.
Today, Adani Group comprises of 7 publicly-listed entities with businesses spanning energy, ports and logistics, mining and resources, gas, defence and aerospace and airports.
The group now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, city-gas distributor and coal miner. They also own Carmichael mine in Australia, and has pledged to invest $70 billion in green energy to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.
Adani Group ventured into media through a 49 per cent acquisition in the business news platform, BQ Prime and, now has an indirect stake of 29.18 per cent in New Delhi Television Ltd.
In June, Adani pledged to donate $7.7 billion for social causes to mark his 60th birthday.
Gautam Adani’s net worth of $137B can buy 79.2million troy ounces of gold and 1.32B barrels of crude oil; and is 2,035,592 times the median US household income, according to Bloomberg Index’s estimations.
Launched in March 2012, Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people based on their net worth.
