With a formidable fortune of $137.4 billion, Gujarat’s very own Gautam Adani is now the world’s 3rd richest person trailing only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the US in the ranking.
Gautam Adani overtook Louis Vuitton chief Bernard Arnault of France and became the first Asian in the Top 3.
The college dropout Gujarati businessman has many business interests ranging from diamond to coal during a relatively short span of his life which saw him climbing the ranking at unprecedented speed.
In the Top 3 slots of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani would be the first Asian person to figure. Fellow Gujarati Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma never reached so far till now.
Gautam Adani, a media-shy Jain businessman has been expanding his coal-to-ports conglomerate from data centres to cement, media and minerals. At 60, Gautam Adani heads the business empire that owns India’s largest private-sector port with huge stakes in airports, city-gas distribution and coal mining. Pledging to invest $70 billion in green energy, the group is set to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.
The remarkable wealth gain of Ambani in a short time has attracted scrutiny from financial experts also. Concerns have been raised about Adani’s deals with experts notifying that his deals are predominantly funded with debt and that Adani empire is “deeply over-leveraged”
Adani is seen as focussing on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi considers crucial to meeting India’s long-term goals. Haters say it is the other way round.
Gautam Adani added $60.9 billion to his fortune in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else. He overtook Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian in February and surpassed Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month.
However, the ascent of Adani in the ranking was helped partly by Bill Gates transferring $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of his philanthropic activity. Earlier, Warren Buffett too gave up more than $35 billion in charity. Gates is now fifth and Buffett is sixth in the Bloomberg wealth ranking.
Also Read: Gautam Adani Commits Rs 60,000 Cr Charity On His 60th Birthday on Friday
