According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Indian business magnate Gautam Adani has become the second-richest person in the world with an estimated $146.8 billion fortune, pushing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to third place.
Bloomberg stated that Adani is the first individual from Asia to rank in the top three of the index, after the tycoon moved into third place last month. Elon Musk continues to be the world’s wealthiest individual with an estimated $263.9 billion.
The founder and head of the Indian industrial behemoth Adani Group has experienced large and rapid wealth increase this year, surpassing Mukesh Ambani, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet on the index. Bloomberg claimed that the business magnate began 2022 in the fourteenth position on the list and rose to the number two position in a matter of months.
Bloomberg discovered that Adani added $60.9 billion to his fortune this year alone, while others on the list lost money. The Associated Press stated that Bill Gates, now ranked fifth on the list, committed $20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in July. According to the AP, No. 6 on the list Warren Buffett has already donated more than $30 billion to the Gates Foundation.
Jeff Bezos’ fortune decreased on Tuesday, allowing Adani to surpass him on the billionaire’s index, as a result of Amazon stock’s decline in response to new inflation statistics.
Adani, a college dropout, amassed his fortune in the coal industry and currently owns seven publicly traded companies in industries such as energy, mining, airports, and military as part of the Adani Group. Bloomberg reports that the billionaire has pledged $70 billion to green energy, which would make the Adani Group the world’s largest renewable-energy generator. Environmentalists have criticized the billionaire’s mining operations.