Gautam Adani Becomes Richest Asian Billionaire, at $100Billion Asset

NEW DELHI: After a massive increase in Gautam Adani's net worth over the past two years, the Indian infrastructure tycoon has become the world's newest centi-billionaire, joining an elite group of business moguls including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates among just eight others, to claim assets in excess of $100 billion. With that, Gautam Adani is the richest Asian billionaire ever after closing of Monday's market, not adjusting for inflation.

Adani’s Real-Time Net Worth-

Asia's richest billionaire and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has taken on software tycoon Larry Ellison to become the world's sixth-richest billionaire as he amassed his personal fortune by $9 billion on Monday (April 11). Adani is now worth more than Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Adani's fortune stood at $121.9 billion at the end of Monday's trading session, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index, which is $22 billion more than Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) Mukesh Ambani. The gap between India's two most powerful businessmen has widened in the past two weeks amid a sharp jump in the share prices of seven of Adani's listed firms.

Gautam Adani, 59, who is currently the only Indian in the elite club, is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a ports and energy conglomerate with six publicly listed companies in India. Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company has invested $2 billion in three of its green energy-focused businesses: Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises, after it was announced on Friday that their fortunes rose above the 12-digit mark. The IHC is headed by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor of the United Arab Emirates and brother of the country's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Adani’s Journey to Success-

It has been a swift road on top for Gautam Adani, whose entrepreneurial journey began in 1988 when he started a commodity export firm after dropping out of college and turning down his father's textile shop. Gautam Adani, the owner of India's largest port located in his home state of Gujarat, first joined the billionaire ranks in 2008 with an estimated net worth of $9.3 billion, but really started to gain momentum after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, after a phase of aggressive expansion in renewable energy, media, airports and more. He has said that he wants to become the world's largest producer of green energy with a target of investing up to $70 billion in renewable energy projects.

Gautam Adani's estimated net worth had risen from $8.9 billion to $50.5 billion by April 2021, when Forbes released its annual world billionaires list for that year. He then overtook Reliance Industries' chief Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Asia's richest person in February 2022, when his net worth once again nearly doubled to over $90 billion; Shares of Adani Green Energy had gained nearly 80 per cent in one year. By the time Forbes released its 2022 billionaires list, Ambani had held the No. 1 spot in Asia, edging out Adani by just $700 million. Ambani is now the second-richest person in Asia—himself nearly a billionaire, worth an estimated $99.4 billion as of Monday afternoon.