According to Forbes, Ambani’s oil-to-telecom juggernaut Reliance Industries became the first Indian business to generate more than $100 billion in sales last year.
According to Forbes’ Billionaire 2023 list, which was published on Tuesday, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has reclaimed the title of Asia’s richest person after challenger Gautam Adani dropped to No. 24. With an estimated net worth of $83.4 billion, 65-year-old Ambani ranks ninth among the world’s richest people, with LVMH’s Bernard Arnault at the top of the list.
Last year, Mukesh Ambani, whose estimated net worth is $90.7 billion, came in at number 10 on the elite list. Mukesh Ambani is ranked higher on the most recent list this year than Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Dell Technologies Michael Dell. “With a net worth of approximately $126 billion on January 24, Adani ranked third among all people in the world. However, a report released later that day by American short-seller Hindenburg Research sent his companies’ shares plunging, “states Forbes.
Once Hindenburg’s analysis was made public on January 24, shares of Adani companies lost more than $100 billion in value, and the conglomerate was forced to scale back some of its ambitious expansion ambitions.
With a current net worth of $47.2 billion, he is the second wealthiest Indian after Ambani. Reliance Industries, the oil-to-telecom juggernaut owned by Ambani, “became the first Indian business to reach $100 billion in revenue last year,” according to Forbes.
According to the report, Ambani avoided succession rumors by appointing his children to prominent positions last year. His elder son Akash is the chairman of Jio Infocomm, his daughter Isha is in charge of the retail division, and his younger son Anant works for Reliance’s new energy endeavors.
Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires estimates the combined wealth of the top 25 individuals at $2.1 trillion, down from $2.3 trillion in 2022 by a total of $200 billion.
“Compared to about half of the list overall, two-thirds of the top 25 are poorer than they were last year,” it stated.
Jeff Bezos suffered the most loss as a result of the 38% decline in Amazon stock, which dropped him from second place in the world in 2022 to third place this year.
Elon Musk, this year’s second-biggest loss, had it worst. After his expensive acquisition of Twitter, which he partially paid for by selling Tesla shares and which alarmed investors, he lost his position as the world’s richest man.
Now at No. 2, Musk has lost $39 billion in value from a year ago.
Bernard Arnault, the owner of LVMH, which includes brands like Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, and Louis Vuitton, tops the list for the first time with a net worth of $211 billion.
Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $114 billion, is placed No. 2 and is 51-year-old Musk’s closest competitor.
“A record 169 Indians, up from 166 the year before, are included in Forbes’ 2023 list of the world’s billionaires. But, their combined wealth took a hit, falling 10% to $675 billion from $750 billion on the 2022 list, forcing them to confront reality “states Forbes.
The stock loss of companies in the Adani Group following a January revelation of fraud charges by short-seller Hindenburg Research accounted for the majority of that decline (allegations the Adani Group has denied).
“The infrastructure and commodities tycoon, who temporarily rose to No. 2 on the global wealth list in September of last year and was at No. 3 for most of January, fell to No. 24. He is currently the second-richest person in India “It read.
Vinod, the older brother of Adani, was claimed to be worth close to $10 billion, but he wasn’t considered an Indian billionaire because of his citizenship in Cyprus, the statement stated.
Software tycoon Shiv Nadar’s wealth dropped 11% from a year earlier to $25.6 billion due to the IT sector’s lack of luster, yet he still managed to hold onto third place in terms of wealth in the nation.
The fourth-richest person in India, Cyrus Poonawalla, managed to hold onto his position despite a decline in the demand for Covid-19 vaccines. His portfolio includes the publicly traded financial services company Poonawalla Fincorp as well as the privately held vaccine juggernaut Serum Institute of India.
Lakshmi Mittal, the head of the steel industry, came in at No. 5, followed by Savitri Jindal, the matriarch of the OP Jindal Group, Dilip Shanghvi, the CEO of Sun Pharma, and Radhakishan Damani, whose Avenue Supermarts owns the DMart retail chain.
Uday Kotak is ranked No. 10 while Kumar Birla is ranked No. 9.
The youngest Indian billionaire, Nikhil Kamath, 36, who co-founded discount brokerage Zerodha with his older sibling Nithin Kamath, is one of the newcomers (also a newcomer). The Bengaluru brothers have respective net worths of $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion.
This year, four people who had previously dropped off the list did so again, including Keshub Mahindra, chairman emeritus of Mahindra & Mahindra. The 99-year-old grandfather, who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, is the oldest billionaire in India.
23 people from the previous list didn’t make the cut this time, including the debt-ridden metals magnate Anil Agarwal and payments pioneer Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose One97 Communications shares have steadily fallen since its IPO in late 2021 due to growing competition for its Paytm payments app and notable investors, such as SoftBank and Alibaba, reducing their stakes.
India saw an increase from 166 billionaires in 2022 to 169 billionaires this year, while Forbes’ global list of billionaires fell from 2,668 last year to 2,640 in 2023. Forbes said that the world’s richest people had a bad year due to declining markets, injured unicorns, and rising interest rates. The combined wealth of the world’s billionaires has dropped by $500 billion to $12.2 trillion.
