Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani has left the world’s richest behind in accumulating wealth this year, thanks to investor excitement around his ports-to-power plants conglomerate.

The net worth of Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur, has jumped $16.2 billion in 2021 so far to around $50 billion ($ 4,970 crore), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the year’s biggest wealth gainer.

“Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has added more billions to his wealth than anyone else in the world this year," Bloomberg tweeted on Friday evening.

Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has added more billions to his wealth than anyone else in the world this year https://t.co/1p13M5Hl1k

— Bloomberg (@business) March 12, 2021He managed to beat the top two names on the billionaires’ index — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk, who have been tussling since January 2021 for the title of the world’s richest.

Shares of all Adani group stocks, except one, have rallied at least 50 per cent this year.

The surge in wealth even dwarfs the $8.1 billion added by Asia’s richest person and fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani.

Adani, who rarely speaks publicly, has been rapidly expanding his conglomerate with ports, airports, data centres and coal mines in India, besides doggedly proceeding with his controversial Carmichael coal project in Australia.

Data centre business is the latest feather in its cap, with which the group has indicated its appetite for venturing into technology. Last month, Adani Enterprises Ltd signed a pact to develop 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity in India.

As far as the tycoon’s traditional businesses are concerned, Adani Total Gas Ltd has jumped 96 per cent this year, while Adani Enterprises has advanced 90 per cent. Adani Transmission Ltd is up 79 per cent, while Adani Power, and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones have gained more than 52 per cent this year. After a stellar rise of over 500 per cent last year, Adani Green Energy Ltd has risen 12 per cent so far this year.

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)