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Just a few years ago, few people outside India had heard of Gautam Adani. But the Indian businessman, a college dropout who first tried his luck as a diamond trader before turning to coal, became the world’s third-richest man this week.
It was the first time an Asian broke into the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — something compatriot Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma have never done. Adani surpassed France’s Bernard Arnault with a fortune of $137.4 billion and is now second in the rankings to the United States’ Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Adani, 60, has spent the past few years expanding his coal-to-ports group, into everything from data centers to cement, media and alumina. The group now owns India’s largest private port and airport operator, city gas distributor and coal mining company. Although its Carmichael mine in Australia has been criticized by environmentalists, it pledged in November to invest $70 billion in green energy to become the world’s largest renewable energy producer.
While his empire has expanded into one of the world’s largest conglomerates, fueling a significant increase in wealth, fears of rapid growth have also grown. CreditSights said in a report this month that Adani’s deal spree was largely financed by debt and that his empire was “severely over-leveraged”.
Some lawmakers and market watchers also expressed concern about the opaque shareholder structure and the lack of analyst coverage of Adani Group companies.However, as the tycoon focuses on what the prime minister thinks Narendra Modi considered essential to achieving India’s long-term goals.
The shift to green energy and infrastructure has won investments from the likes of Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, helping Adani enter an echelon previously dominated by US tech giants. A surge in coal in recent months has further fueled his rise.
All told, in 2022 alone, Adani’s wealth will increase by $60.9 billion, five times that of the others.He first surpassed Ambani as Asia’s richest man in February and became a billionaire in April and surpassed Microsoft The company’s Bill Gates became the world’s fourth-richest person last month.
Adani has been able to overtake some of the world’s richest American billionaires in part because of their recent ramp-up of philanthropy. Gates said in July he would transfer $20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Warren Buffett has donated more than $35 billion.
The pair, along with Gates’ ex-wife Melinda France Gates, launched the Giving Pledge initiative in 2010, pledging to give away most of their lifetime wealth. The billions of dollars spent on philanthropy land them lower on the Bloomberg Wealth Rankings. They are now ranked 5th and 164th respectively.
Adani also increased his charitable giving, pledging $7.7 billion for social causes in June in honor of his 60th birthday.
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