Gautam Adani overtakes Bill Gates to become 4th richest person in the world

Gautam Adani's wealth, on Thursday, stood at $115.7 billion, as compared to Bill Gates's $104.6 billion. In the last 24 hours, Adani has gained $337 million

India’s Gautam Adani on Thursday overtook Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world’s fourth richest person, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list.

Adani is worth $115.7 billion and Gates $104.6 billion. In the last 24 hours, Adani gained $337 million, Forbes' website showed. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, tops the list with wealth put at $235.8 billion. 

Bernard Arnault, founder and chairman of Louis Vuitton SE, comes second on the list with the wealth of $156.7 billion, followed by former Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, with a wealth of $148.4 billion.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director (MD) of Reliance Industries, is 10th on Forbes' list with a total wealth of $90 billion. Adani and Ambani are the only Indians in Forbes' top 10 list.

Adani is chairman of chairman and founder of Adani Group, which has businesses in airports and ports, generating and distributing electricity, and coal and gas trading. The conglomerate is participating at an auction of 5G airwaves by India scheduled for later this month.

"Some of Adani Group's listed stocks have soared more than 600% in the past two years on bets his push into green energy and infrastructure will pay off as PM Modi looks to revive the $2.9 trillion economy and meet India's carbon net-zero target by 2070," a Bloomberg report had stated recently.

"In barely three years, Adani has gained control of seven airports and almost a quarter of India's air traffic. His group now owns the country's largest airport operator, power generator and city gas retailer in the non-state sector," it said.

In September 2020, Adani Group acquired a 74 per cent stake in the Mumbai International Airport, becoming India's biggest airport operator.

In May 2022, Adani Group acquired Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and ACC, in the biggest cement deal in the country worth $10.5 billion. He is now the second biggest player in the cement industry in the country.  

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) in Israel, the company, jointly with Israel's Gadot Group, won a tender to privatise Haifa port, the second largest port in Israel for $1.18 billion, on July 14.

Also, Adani Group has sought a loan worth Rs 14,000 crore for setting up a new PVC plant in Mundra, Gujarat.