Gautam Adani's net worth surges to $129.4bn

Adani Group chairman adds $6.2bn to his personal fortune in 24 hours, bringing him closer to overtaking Bill Gates as the world's fourth-richest person

Top 10 richest people in the world: 1. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk - $246bn. AFP

2. Head of French luxury goods maker LVMH Bernard Arnault - $157.7bn. AFP

3. Jeff Bezos of Amazon - $150.1bn. Getty

4. Microsoft founder Bill Gates - $129.4bn. AFP

5. Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani - $125.9bn. Reuters

6. Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett - $116.6bn. AFP

7. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani - $105.4bn. Reuters

8. Businessman Larry Ellison - $102.5bn. Reuters

9. Larry Page, co-founder of Google/Alphabet - $98.5bn. Reuters

10. Co-founder of Google/Alphabet Sergey Brin - $94.7bn. Reuters

RELATED: Gautam Adani edges past Warren Buffett to become world’s 5th-richest person

Self-made billionaire Gautam Adani’s net worth surged $6.2 billion, or 5.03 per cent, to reach $129.4bn on Tuesday, only $1.2bn short of overtaking Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List showed.

With a net worth of $130.6bn, Mr Gates has added a relatively modest $391 million to his personal fortune this year.

However, Mr Adani, 59, is one of the world’s biggest wealth-gainers in 2022, which explains his rapid rise in the billionaire rankings.

So far this year, Mr Adani has added more than $40bn to his fortune as shares in his listed companies continue to skyrocket, Forbes said.

Last year, the MSCI India Index added three Adani Group companies to the benchmark gauge. These include flagship Adani Enterprises, gas supplier Adani Total Gas and power distributor Adani Transmission.

Over the past two decades, the Adani Group has diversified into ports, power generation and distribution, airports, data centres and digital services.

“Today, he is one of the 100 most influential businessmen worldwide, both in the shipping trade and infrastructure industry,” said Celebrity Net Worth, which tracks the wealth and finances of the rich and famous.

On Monday, the Adani Group chairman edged out renowned investor Warren Buffett to become the world’s fifth-richest person with a personal fortune of $122.8bn. Mr Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has a current net worth of $121.9bn.

Elon Musk, expected to become the new owner of Twitter after his $44bn offer for the social media company was accepted on Monday, is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $268.2bn, figures compiled by Forbes show.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world's second-wealthiest person with a net worth of $171.9bn. He is followed by Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury group LVMH, with a personal fortune of $159.7bn.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has dropped one place to become the world's ninth-richest person, with a net worth of $103.2bn.

In February, Mr Adani was crowned the wealthiest person in Asia, with a net worth of $88.5bn and ranked as the 10th-richest person in the world at the time, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur who started off as a diamond trader in Mumbai in the 1980s, helped run his brother’s plastics business in his home state of Gujarat before setting up Adani Enterprises — the group’s flagship company — as an agri-commodities trader in 1988.

Top 10 richest people in the world

• Elon Musk: $268.2bn
• Jeff Bezos: $171.9bn
• Bernard Arnault: $159.7bn
• Bill Gates: $130.6bn
• Gautam Adani: $129.4bn
• Warren Buffett: $121.9bn
• Larry Ellison: $108.3bn
• Larry Page: $105.2bn
• Mukesh Ambani: $103.2bn
• Sergey Brin: $101.1bn

Source: Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List

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