Gautam Adani, India’s and Asia’s second-richest person, added $49 billion to his wealth last year, more than the net wealth additions of the top three global billionaires, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault, according to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday.
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries, remains the richest Indian, with a fortune of $103 billion, a 24% increase year on year.
In the last 10 years, while Ambani’s wealth has grown 400 per cent, Adani has seen a 1,830 per cent increase, the list said.
“Gautam Adani, 59, is the biggest gainer in the M3M Hurun Global List 2022 and added USD 49 billion to his wealth last year,” M3M Hurun Global Rich List said in a statement. His net wealth addition is “more than top three global billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.”
After listing renewable energy company Adani Green, his wealth increased nearly fivefolds to $81 billion from $17 billion in 2020.
According to the report, Ambani’s wealth increased by USD 20 billion in 2021.
Falguni Nayar, the founder of Nykaa, is the wealthiest new entrant on the Hurun Global Rich List 2022 ($7.6 billion).
The statement said that the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List ranked 3,381 billionaires from 2,557 companies and 69 countries.
Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, said India ranks third based on the number of billionaires and the number of billionaires who have added at least a billion-dollar to their wealth.
“Over the last 10 years, Indian billionaires added circa $700 billion to their cumulative wealth – this is equivalent to Switzerland’s GDP and twice the GDP of the UAE!” he said.
He stated that India now has 18% of the global population and 8% of the world’s ‘known’ billionaires, up from 4.9 percent five years ago.
India has 215 billionaires, compared to 1,133 billionaires in China and 716 in the United States.
The statement said Adani is the biggest wealth gainer in the 2022 list, followed by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and founder and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, Bernard Arnault ($39 billion addition).
Ambani is ranked 8th in terms of wealth addition.