Gautam Adani Becomes World's Fourth Richest, Surpasses Microsoft's Bill Gates

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani became world fourth richest individual surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes' Real Time Billionaires List. Gautam Adani and Family with net worth of $116.4 billion surpassed Bill Gates who has net worth of $104.6 billion. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is currently the world's richest individual with net worth of $235.8 billion. He is followed by Bernard Arnault & Family with net worth of $156.2 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with net worth of $148 billion, according to Forbes.

India's second richest person Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the country's most profitable company, Reliance Industries is 10th on the list with net worth of Rs 90 billion.

Gautam Adani is chairman of Adani Group which controls India's largest private sector port company and it is also the country's largest thermal power producer.

Adani Group has seven listed companies in India namely - Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and SEZ, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power. The company has business interest in Energy, Ports & Logistics, Mining & Resources, Gas, Defence & Aerospace and Airports.

Besides these businesses Adani Group has recently shown its interest in telecom business by participating in bidding process for 5G spectrum auction due later this month.

Adani has been rapidly expanding his conglomerate, adding ports, airports, data centers and coal mines in India, while doggedly proceeding with his controversial Carmichael coal project in Australia.

Last month, Adani and his family pledged to give Rs 60,000 crore to a slew of social causes, to mark his 60th birthday, news agency Bloomberg reported.