The Indian coal mining tycoon Gautam Adani has become Asia’s richest person thanks to a push into green energy that has boosted his fortune to $88.5bn.
Adani has overtaken fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani to enter the top 10 of the world’s richest people, according to figures from Forbes and Bloomberg, after seeing his personal fortune rise by $12bn in the past year.
Among the mega-rich whom Adani has leapfrogged to reach the world top 10 are Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who slipped down the table several places last week after losing $30bn of his personal fortune.
Although Adani has become the face of big coal around the world with its pursuit of the hugely controversial Carmichael mine project in Australia, the mogul’s ascent into the top echelons of world billionaires is down to his expansion of green investments. The group is in the process of ploughing $70bn into green energy projects by 2030 with the aim of becoming the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.