Jeff Bezos Loses Spot as World's Second Richest Person To Goutam Adani- NB Inspire

 Jeff Bezos Loses Spot as World's Second Richest Person To Goutam Adani- NB Inspire

Gautam Adani, the Indian tycoon who has climbed the wealth rankings at breakneck speed this year, surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the world's second richest person.

Adani, who started the years as No the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, now has a $146.8 billion fortune that lags behind only Elon Musk's $263.9 billion. Shares of his flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. Surged to a surged to a record this week, and some of his group companies have climbed more than 1,000% since 2020.

Bezos trails Adani by just $19 milllion as a renewed tech selloff Friday again hammered the fortune of the richest American. The shift in the wealth ranking could be fleeting and depends largely on shares of Amazon.com Inc., which are down 26% this year.

Adani first overtake India's Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian person in February, become a centibillionaire in April and surpassed Bill Gates and France's Bernard Arnault in the past two months. Its's the first time someone form Asia has feathered this highly in the echelons of the wealth index, which has been dominated by US tech entrepreneur.

Adani, 60 dropped out of college to try his luck in Mumbai's industry in the early 1980 before turning to coal and parts. His conglomerate has since expended into everything form airports to data centers, cement, media and green energy, focusing on areas the Prime Minister Narendra Modi deems crucial to meeting India's long-term economic goals.

The nation's largest private-sector and airport operators, city-gas distributor and coal miner are all part of Adani's empire, which also aims to become the world's largest renewable-energy producer. Last year, it pledged to invest $70 billion in green power, a pivot that has been criticized by some as greenwashing given that so much of the group's revenue comes forms fossil fuels.

The push into renewables and infrastructure has earned Adani investments form firms including Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, helping boost his companies' shares and his personal fortune else-while many have seen losses.

The rapid expansion of Adani's conglomerate prompted Fitch unit Credit Sights to describe some of the companies' leverage as "elevated" in a September report. The group has said its firms have reduced dept levels in recent years.

The scrutiny is adding to already existing worries over opaque shareholder structures and a lock of analyst coverage. Some Adani Group companies have traded at 700 times earnings, far surpassing firms like Tesla Inc. And Amazon, whose valuations have been closer to 100 times.

Adani's rise coincides with a tech selloff that has shaved more than $46 billion from Bezos's fortune since January. The net worth of the Amazon founder- for years the world's richest person- also significantly after his 2019 divorce form ex-wife Mackenzie Scott, who received 4% of e-commerce gaint.

The Indian tycoon, who has vowed to donate $7.7 billion for social causes, has also been able to climbed the wealth ranking because many of the tech entrepreneurs at the top- such as Gates-have boosted their charitable giving.

Bezos has committed $10 billion to fight climate change and has donated money to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Gates and  Warren Buffett, some of the top philanthropists, started the giving pledge initiative in 2010 to help ease a growing inequality gap. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder said in July he was transferring $20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Which has also received more than $35 billion from Buffett.