With a net worth of a whopping USD137.4 billion
By Shaan Bajaj
Indian-born Gautam Adani casually became the third richest person in the world on August 30th. He is the founder of Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate with its headquarters in Ahmedabad. He started the company back in 1988 as a trading firm, and since then, Gautam has grown it from a simple trading firm to a business with an incredibly diversified portfolio, spanning port management, coal trading, oil refining, electrical power generation and transmission, renewable energy, and mining and infrastructure, with operations in 50 different countries.
This billionaire started his climb as a diamond trader after dropping out from Gujarat University. His father’s business was within the textile industry, but Gautam wanted to build something of his own. After his stint within the diamond industry, Gautam joint his brother’s plastic business, and slowly began building Adani Enterprises. He accumulated a majority of his wealth during the global pandemic through investing in Mumbai International Airport, Ambuja Cements, and media. He also recently invested in green energy, specifically wind and solar energy. According to him, his aim is to become the largest producer of green energy worldwide within the next decade, and he’s pledged to invest up to USD 70 billion on renewable energy projects. On Bloomberg’s billionaire index, he falls right behind Amazon giant Jeff Bezos, and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk.
Although his sudden wealth has caused concerns between analysts as he seems to be leveraging his debt, his investors remain unfazed and are confident in his ability to grow his business in the various industries he’s part of. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has deemed him worthy, as his recent growth has been in industries important to India’s economic growth.
