Billionaire Gautam Adani Becomes World's 3rd Richest Person, First Asian To Do So

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has surpassed Louis Vuitton¡¯s co-founder and chairman Bernard Arnault to become world¡¯s third-richest person this week.

This is the first time an Asian person has broken into the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with India¡¯s Mukesh Ambani and China¡¯s Jack Ma yet to reach that far.

With more than $137 billion fortune, Adani has now trails just Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the US in the ranking, as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index. World's richest person Elon Musk currently has $251 billion net worth, while second placed Jeff Bezos has $153 billion. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is placed at 11th, with a net worth of $91.9 billion as per the list.

60-year-old Adani has spent the past few years expanding his coal-to-ports conglomerate, venturing into everything from data centers to cement, media and alumina. The group now owns India¡¯s largest private-sector port and airport operator, city-gas distributor and coal miner. While its Carmichael mine in Australia has been criticised by environmentalists, it pledged in November to invest $70 billion in green energy to become the world¡¯s largest renewable-energy producer, Bloomberg report mentioned.

Adani has till now added $60.9 billion to his fortune in 2022 alone as per the list, five times more than anyone else. He first overtook Ambani as the richest Asian in February, became a centi-billionaire in April and surpassed Microsoft Corp.¡¯s Bill Gates as the world¡¯s fourth-richest person last month.

Fortune

The pivot to green energy and infrastructure has won investments from firms including Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, helping Adani enter the echelons previously dominated by US tech moguls. The surge in coal in recent months has further turbocharged his ascent, as per the report.

While his empire has expanded to one of the world¡¯s largest conglomerates fuelling the remarkable gains in wealth, concerns have grown over the rapid growth. Adani¡¯s deals spree has been predominantly funded with debt and his empire is ¡°deeply over-leveraged,¡± CreditSights said in a report this month.

Some lawmakers and market watchers have also raised concerns over opaque shareholder structures and a lack of analyst coverage at Adani Group companies. Yet the shares have soared, with some of them more than 1,000% since 2020, and valuations hitting 750 times the earnings, as the tycoon focused on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi deems crucial to meeting India¡¯s long-term goals, as per Bloomberg report.

Rise In Philanthropy By Billionaires

Gautam Adani was able to move past some of the world¡¯s richest US billionaires partly because they¡¯ve recently boosted their philanthropy. Bill Gates said in July he was transferring $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, while Warren Buffett has already donated more than $35 billion to the charity, the report mentioned.

Adani, too, has increased his charitable activities, with the recent one being of pledging to donate $7.7 billion in June 2022 on his 60th birthday.

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