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Gautam Adani, the Indian tycoon who has climbed the wealth rankings at breakneck speed this year, surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the world’s second-richest person.
Adani, who started the year as No. 14 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, now has a $US146.8 billion fortune that lags behind only Elon Musk’s $US263.9 billion. Shares of his flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd surged to a record this week, and some of his group companies have climbed more than 1000 per cent since 2020.
Gautam Adani surpasses Jeff Bezos in wealth.Credit:Tomohiro Ohsumi
Bezos trails Adani by just $US19 million as a renewed tech selloff Friday again hammered the fortunes of the richest Americans. The shift in the wealth rankings could be fleeting and depends largely on shares of Amazon.com Inc, which are down 26 per cent this year.
Adani first overtook India’s Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian person in February, became a centibillionaire in April and surpassed Bill Gates and France’s Bernard Arnault in the past two months. It’s the first time someone from Asia has featured this highly in the top echelons of the wealth index, which has been dominated by US tech entrepreneurs.
Adani, 60, dropped out of college to try his luck in Mumbai’s diamond industry in the early 1980s before turning to coal and ports. His conglomerate has since expanded into everything from airports to data centres, cement, media and green energy, focusing on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi deems crucial to meeting India’s long-term economic goals.
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The nation’s largest private-sector port and airport operators, city-gas distributor and coal miner are all part of Adani’s empire, which also aims to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer. Last year, it pledged to invest $US70 billion in green power, a pivot that has been criticised by some as greenwashing given that so much of the group’s revenue still comes from fossil fuels.
The push into renewables and infrastructure has earned Adani investments from firms including Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, helping boost his companies’ shares and his personal fortune. This year, he added about $US70 billion to his wealth — more than anyone else — while many have seen losses.
The rapid expansion of Adani’s conglomerate prompted Fitch Group unit CreditSights to describe some of the companies’ leverage as “elevated” in a September report. The group has said its firms have reduced debt levels in recent years.