Now No. 2: Gautam Adani replaces Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s second wealthiest man
Virendra Pandit
Ahmedabad: Gujarat-based conglomerate Adani Group’s Chairman Gautam Adani has surpassed Amazon Inc’s chief Jeff Bezos to emerge as the world’s second wealthiest person, the media reported on Friday.
He is now next only to Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of USD 273.5 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time data.
Adani’s wealth surged on Friday because of a sharp rally in his group’s stocks. According to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, Adani’s net worth stood at USD 155.7 billion as of Friday (September 16, 2022), up USD 5.5 billion, or nearly 4 percent.
Friday’s early deals saw the stocks of Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, and Adani Transmission Ltd hit their record highs on the BSE, making Gautam Adani’s real-time net worth surge.
The Adani Group chairperson has added over USD 70 billion to his fortune in 2022 (YTD). In February, he overtook Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian, became a centibillionaire (one with a net worth of USD 100 billion) in April, and left behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month.
Currently, Ambani is in eighth place with a net worth of USD 92.3 billion.
The Adanis are the largest port operators in India, own India’s largest closely held thermal power plants, and are the largest coal traders, among others.
This year, Adani said he would invest up to USD 70 billion in renewable energy projects. This will make him the world’s largest producer of green energy.
On Friday, reports said, Switzerland’s Holcim closed the sale of Ambuja Cement and its subsidiary ACC to the Adani Group, resulting in cash proceeds of USD 6.4 billion.
