Only a few years ago, few people outside of India had heard of Gautam Adani. But the Indian businessman, a college dropout who started out as a diamond trader before switching to coal, became the world’s third-richest person this week.
Adani, 60, has spent the last few years diversifying his coal-to-ports business, diversifying into industries ranging from data centres to cement, media, and alumina. The business now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, as well as the country’s largest city-gas distributor and coal miner.
While environmentalists have condemned its Carmichael project in Australia, it committed in November to invest US$ 70 billion in green energy to become the world’s greatest renewable-energy generator. Overall, Adani has increased his fortune by US$ 60.9 billion in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else.
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.
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.
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.
