Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani exit $100 billion club: With various business challenges looming over two of the biggest conglomerates in India – Adani Group and Reliance Industries, the country’s wealthiest billionaires and among Asia’s richest people, Reliance CMD Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, have both dropped out of the Bloomberg’s $100 billion club for the year, Bloomberg reported.
However, the wealth of India’s richest has continued to rise with the 20 wealthiest adding $67.3 billion to their fortunes since January 2024. The biggest gainer among this being technology mogul Shiv Nadar who added $10.8 billion, and Savitri Jindal whose family controls the Jindal Group, with an addition of $10.1 billion.
Now, what pushed Ambani and Adani out of the $100 billion club?
Both Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were dropped out of the ‘centibillionaire club’ as their net worth has fallen below the $100 billion mark per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Looking at Mukesh Ambani’s case, whose current net worth stood at $96.3 billion, the report said that he lost a total of $55.5 million of his wealth this year. One major reason for this drop is the underperformance of Reliance’s energy and retail businesses. His fortune stood at $120.8 billion in July when his son Anant Ambani got married and since then, there has been a downfall in the net worth.
Now, Gautam Adani is in a more dire situation with the US prosecutors, in November, indicting him, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others for allegedly offering Rs 2,029 crore ($265 million) in bribes to Indian government officials for securing “lucrative solar energy supply contracts” with state electricity distribution companies. Gautam Adani and his conglomerate has already been under the scanner since the US short selling company Hindenburg Research released a scathing report in January, 2023.
Even as Gautam Adani has denied all allegations, the conglomerate remains under scanner. His current net worth stood at $80.8 billion and the businessman lost a total of $3.52 billion this year, per the report.
The richie-rich(es) of the world
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the founder & CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla Motors, Owner, CTO and executive chairman of X (formerly Twitter), has topped the list with a total net worth of $474 billion. His wealth soared by more than $245 billion this year, boosted by a nearly 71 per cent surge in Tesla stock following the US elections. His net worth was also boosted by an insider share sale of SpaceX.
Second in the list was Jeff Bezos, Executive Chairman of Amazon, with a total net worth of $251 billion. Bezos has added $74.5 billion to his net worth since the start of 2024. Interestingly, the difference between the richest person and the second-richest stands at around $200 billion, showcasing a huge disparity at the pinnacle of global wealth.
The third place in the list went to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, whose net worth stood at $221 billion. He added a total of $92.6 billion to his fortune since the start of the year.