There is no denying the ascent of India's Gautam Adani.
Initially, he achieved the status of being the richest person in Asia. His net worth then exceeded that of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Adani's wealth is now rivalling those of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Gautam Adani's net worth more than doubled in a year during which many fortunes around the globe have crumbled, increasing from US$64.8bn to US$141.4bn
Share prices of some Adani firms also have more than doubled this year even in a period of big gains throughout the industry.
A valuation of more than 750 times profit is assigned to Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas, while a valuation of more than 400 times profit is assigned to Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission.
Comparatively, Musk's Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) trade at around 100 times earnings, while fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries trades at 28 times earnings.
Business empire
As a college dropout who was held for ransom and survived a terror attack, Adani worked in Mumbai's diamond industry in the early 1980s before turning to coal and ports.
The business empire he built encompassed everything from airports to data centres to media and cement.
Last year, he promised to invest US$70bn in green energy to become the world's biggest renewable energy producer.
Bezos and Musk in sight
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos still rank as the two wealthiest individuals.
Musk is a major shareholder in Tesla, which is the sixth largest company in the world with a market capitalization of US$864bn.
The market value of Amazon, of which Bezos is now only executive chairman, is US$1.31trn, making it the fifth largest company in the world.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Musk's fortune at US$247bn as of August 30, while Bezos's is US$152bn.
In the world's wealthiest rankings, however, the two tech tycoons, who also compete in the conquest of space through SpaceX and Blue Origin, must watch out for a new rival.
Third in the fray
Adani's wealth is valued at US$143bn, just US$9bn less than Bezos'.
Adani has overtaken French businessman Bernard Arnault, chief of luxury empire LVMH, who had been at the third spot for a number of months.
Arnault's fortune is estimated at US$137bn, ranking him fourth. With a fortune of US$116bn, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, ranks fifth.
Among the top-ranking billionaires, only Adani and India's Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, in ninth place, have increased their wealth since January.
In the past eight months, Adani's wealth has increased by US$66.2bn, while that of his countryman has increased by "only" US$4bn to US$94bn.
Musk and Bezos, on the other hand, saw their fortunes decline by US$24bn and US$40bn, respectively.