Gautam Adani Joins Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos in Exclusive $100 Billion Club
(Bloomberg) -- The centibillionaires club has a new member: Gautam Adani.Â
The Indian tycoon, whose empire includes ports, mines and green energy, is the latest whose fortune reached the $100 billion mark. Up almost $24 billion this year, he's the world's biggest gainer and joins nine other members of the elite group. Fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth first topped that benchmark in October, has now dropped slightly below it to $99 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Adani's ascent has been nothing short of spectacular. The college dropout who first made a fortune in the coal industry has amassed almost all of his wealth in the past two years, thanks to a shift to green energy and infrastructure that landed him investments from companies including France's Total SE and Warburg Pincus.
He's also though exploring potential partnerships in Saudi Arabia, including the possibility of buying a stake in the world's largest oil exporter, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Read more: Billionaire Adani Is Said to Explore Partnerships With Aramco
His focus on expanding in areas that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi deems crucial to nation-building and meeting the country's long-term economic goals is paying off: Some Adani Group stocks have surged more than 1,000% since 2020.
While 2021 was a good year for the rich, with the world's 500 wealthiest people added more than $1 trillion to their combined fortunes, Adani, 59, stood out. His net worth soared by $42.7 billion, one of the biggest gains. In February he briefly became Asia's richest person, eclipsing Ambani.Â
Adani and Ambani, 64, the chairman of oil-and-petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd., reached the pinnacle of a wealth ranking that's dominated by people who largely made their fortunes in the U.S. technology sector. Like Adani, Ambani was able to pivot his conglomerate to new industries -- e-commerce and tech -- getting billions of dollars in investments from backers including Facebook and Google.Â
Wealth creation has accelerated in recent years. In 2017, Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos was the first to hit the $100 billion milestone since Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates back in 1999. Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk, now the world's richest person with a fortune of $273 billion, joined the group in 2020.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
