A recent surge in Adani Group stocks has added billions of dollars in market value, underscoring strong investor appetite for assets linked to India’s economic expansion and energy transition. By contrast, Mukesh Ambani’s wealth, anchored by his flagship conglomerate Reliance Industries that spans energy, telecom, and retail, has seen comparatively modest gains, resulting in a reshuffling of the region’s billionaire rankings. Topping the global billionaire ranking is Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla—the world’s most valuable carmaker—and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, with a net worth of $656 billion that is more than double his closest rival, Larry Page. Page, co-founder of Alphabet, the holding company for Google, is worth $286 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, at No. 3 with $269 billion. Notably, Adani and Ambani remain the only Indians featured in the top 50.
Ambani had consistently held the title of India’s richest for over a decade before Adani’s eye-popping gains in company stock prices catapulted him to the top spot in February 2022. However, the group’s stocks tumbled in the aftermath of a damning report by US short seller Hindenburg, which led to the Adani Group losing $100 billion in market value at its lowest point and allowed Ambani to make a comeback at the top. In mid-2024, Adani again overtook Ambani, driven by a surge in stocks linked to infrastructure expansion and the energy transition narrative. Although Ambani regained the top slot in mid-2025, he lost it again this month. The Adani Group has built a diversified portfolio spanning transport and logistics, integrated energy infrastructure across generation, transmission and distribution, as well as interests in natural resources, airports, defence and aerospace, data centres, cement, media, roads, rail and metro networks, real estate, urban redevelopment, food and FMCG, digital platforms and business incubation. According to the group, Gautam Adani is India’s first first-generation entrepreneur to lead a business empire to a market capitalisation exceeding $200 billion.
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