According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire estimates published on Thursday, Indian industrialist Gautam Adani has surpassed Bill Gates to become the wealthiest Asian, with a net worth of $90.1 billion. He is now the 10th richest person on the planet. According to Forbes, he just beats out fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries, worth only $100 million less at $90 billion. Previously, Ambani held the title of wealthiest Asian billionaire.
The achievement is extraordinary for Adani, who is 59 years old and a college dropout who founded a commodities export company in 1988. In 2008, he was listed as one of the world’s billionaires, with a net worth of $9.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine. His Adani Group is comprised of a diverse range of enterprises, ranging from power production and transmission to edible oil to real estate and coal mining. A total of six of the group’s Indian subsidiaries are publicly traded, the most valued of which is Adani Green Energy Ltd, which has seen its stock price rise by 77 percent in the last year.
Adani’s net wealth had almost quadrupled since Forbes published its annual World’s Billionaires list in April 2021, when his net worth was $50.5 billion. During the same time, Ambani’s net worth increased by just 6.5 percent, from $84.5 billion in April of last year to $90.5 billion now. On Thursday, the stock of Reliance Industries, which operates in the oil, petrochemicals, retail, and telecommunications industries, declined 1.47 percent, taking the company’s year-to-date loss to 2.3 percent.
Adani hails from the Indian state of Gujarat, which is located in the west. His college studies were cut short, and he created Adani Enterprises, a commodities exporting company, in 1988. He soon extended his company’s operations to include port management, electricity generating, solar energy, and other services. According to reports, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister who served as the state’s chief minister before becoming Prime Minister, has lent his backing to the Adani Group’s expansion. Modi was a guest at Adani’s son’s wedding, according to a 2014 storey in Forbes magazine. The Adani Group purchased a 74 percent share in Mumbai International Airport, which is the second busiest airport in India, in September 2020.