Warren Buffett Loses World's 5th Richest Position To Indian Energy Tycoon — Bill Gates Could Be Next

Following a Tuesday meltdown in the U.S. stock market, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani overtook Warren Buffett on the world’s-richest list to grab the fifth position.

This came after the founder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) saw his net wealth declined by $2.44 billion on Tuesday, while the Adani Conglomerate founder added $6.31 billion following a rally in his companies' stocks listed in India.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Adani’s net wealth stood at $125 billion, nearly equal to that of Microsoft Corporation MSFT co-founder Bill Gates, who is at the fourth position.

Gates' net wealth slipped by $1.71 billion on Tuesday. 

While all the top 10 billionaires saw their wealth bleed red, Adani and fellow Indian energy tycoon Mukesh Ambani — of Reliance Industries — piled on gains. Adani alone added $6.31 billion on Tuesday.

The increasing wealth of the Adani conglomerate and its founder is spurred by the continuous bull run of Adani group stocks. Recently, the conglomerate's energy arm Adani Power and FMCG firm Adani Wilmar crossed INR 1 lakh crore in market valuation, making the Indian business tycoon richer with its investors. 

The Bloomberg Index showed that Adani is among the few top billionaires that have seen their net wealth swell since the start of this year; the world's richest person — Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk — has seen his wealth drop by a whopping $18.5 billion.

Adani has added $48.3 billion to his wealth in 2022 so far.

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