Billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, who heads the Adani Group, has edged past Bernard Arnault, the co-founder and chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, to become the world’s second richest individual, according to data by Forbes. According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Adani and his family’s net worth as of early Friday stood at $155.4 billion against Arnault's $155.2 billion. The Forbes list is currently headed by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk whose net worth stands at $273.5 billion. He is followed by Adani, Arnault and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (net worth $$149.7 billion), the data showed. Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani is placed in eighth place with a net worth of $92.3 billion, behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates (net worth $105.3 billion), Larry Ellison (net worth $98.3 billion) and veteran Wall Street investor Warren Buffet (net worth $96.5 billion). Rank Name Net Worth (in $ Billion) 1 Elon Musk 273.5 2 Gautam Adani & family 155.4 3 Bernard Arnault & family 155.2 4 Jeff Bezos 149.7 5 Bill Gates 105.3 6 Larry Ellison 98.3 7 Warren Buffett 96.5 8 Mukesh Ambani 92.3 9 Larry Page 89.0 10 Sergey Brin 85.4 Source: Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List 60-year-old Adani has spent the past few years expanding his ports-to-power transmission empire, venturing into various businesses ranging from data centers to cement, media and more. The Adani Group owns India's largest private-sector port and airport operator, city-gas distributor and coal miner. Its food and kitchen essentials arm - Adani Wilmar is also looking for local and overseas acquisition targets in a bid to boost its empire’s food operations.
