Photo: Hindustan Times
Fellow Indian Gautam Adani overtakes Mukesh Ambani as the wealthiest person in Asia in Bloomberg’s list of the world’s richest people.
The 59-year-old Adani, the founder of Adani Group, controls companies ranging from ports and aerospace to thermal energy and coal. He now has a net worth of $88.5 billion, Bloomberg Billionaires Index says.
Adani’s wealth skyrocketed over the COVID-19 pandemic. He had been worth less than $40 billion at this time last year, but with such a massive spike, he unseated Mukesh Ambani, fellow countryman and energy-to-tech entrepreneur. As a result, he became the world’s 10th richest person on the list.
Adani Group also performed spectacularly on the Indian stock market. Shares of the Adani Enterprises rose to 1,000% on the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai since June 2020. This is considered a telling sign that investors trust Adani’s bet on sectors such as infrastructure and renewable energy, which are essential to the economic development goals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With control over Reliance Industries and a net worth of $87.9 billion, Ambani has taken the 11th spot on Bloomberg’s index.
A significant change in the billionaires ranking also occurred last week. The parent company of Facebook, Meta (FB), saw a collapse on its stock market, which led to more than $30 billion off Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth. Because of this, the Facebook founder is now in 13th place on the Bloomberg index.
