Adani Group’s Gautam Adani has overtaken Mukesh Ambani, the chairperson and managing director of Reliance Industries, to become Asia’s richest person, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed on Thursday.
The index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest persons, for which the figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.
Ambani lost $16.9 billion in 2026, marking the biggest drop in the wealth of the richest Asians, the Financial Times reported. This took his net worth to $90.8 billion.
The businessperson operates the world’s largest refinery.
On the other hand, Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate focuses on infrastructure, energy, logistics and materials, saw his fortune rise by $8.1 billion to $92.6 billion.
Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities in Mumbai, told Financial Times that the “impact of global crude oil prices and the geopolitical issues are clearly visible on Mukesh Ambani’s businesses”.
Global oil prices have spiked due to the conflict in West Asia, with Iran having blocked the strategic Strait of Hormuz for most commercial shipping. The narrow waterbody connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. About 20% of the global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
India’s wealthiest persons have collectively lost $28.1 billion so far this year due to the crisis, the newspaper reported.
However, Gautam Adani’s companies are “quite resilient and resurgent” after a “volatile period” marked by allegations of fraud made by a short seller and United States criminal charges against him, Bathini said.
Bathini was referring to American short seller Hindenburg Research alleging in January 2023 that the Adani Group’s companies were on a “precarious financial footing” and had amassed substantial debt by pledging overvalued shares. It accused the conglomerate of accounting fraud and money laundering using offshore tax havens.
India’s Securities and Exchange Board of India had in September cleared the Adani Group in connection with an allegation.
In November 2024, the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York also indicted Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani in a $265 million bribery and fraud case.
The US Department of Justice alleged that executives of the conglomerate participated in a scheme to bribe officials in India for solar energy contracts, then misrepresented the company’s anti-bribery practices to investors in the US. The details of the alleged bribes were concealed to secure financing, the US Department of Justice claimed.
The Adani Group has denied the allegations. It said in a stock exchange filing in November 2024 that Gautam Adani and his nephew had been charged in the US for securities fraud, not bribery.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Friday listed Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, as the richest person in the world. His net worth of $656 billion was more than double that of Larry Page, who is the co-founder of Alphabet and is worth $268 billion.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is ranked third with a net worth of $269 billion.
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