Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani
Adani in 2012
Gautam Adani
Born	Gautam Shantilal Adani 24 6, 1962
Birthplace	Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Businessman
Title	Founder and Chairman, Adani Group
Known for	Founding the Adani Group
Education	Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya (dropped out)
Children	2

Gautam Shantilal Adani (born 24 June 1962) is an Indian billionaire businessman and the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate with interests spanning port management, energy, logistics, agribusiness, real estate, and infrastructure. From modest beginnings as a diamond sorter in Mumbai, Adani built one of India's largest business empires, with operations that have made him one of the wealthiest individuals in Asia and the world. His rise has been marked by rapid expansion across sectors deemed critical to India's economic development, particularly ports, power generation, and renewable energy. In 2022, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His career has also been the subject of significant controversy, including allegations of stock manipulation by the American short-selling firm Hindenburg Research in January 2023 and a criminal indictment by U.S. federal prosecutors in November 2024 on charges of bribery. In early 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved forward with a civil fraud lawsuit against Adani after clearing procedural hurdles.

Early Life

Gautam Shantilal Adani was born on 24 June 1962 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. He attended Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad but did not complete his studies there. As a teenager, Adani moved to Mumbai in 1978, where he found work as a diamond sorter at Mahendra Brothers. The move to Mumbai at the age of sixteen marked the beginning of Adani's career in business and trade.

In 1981, Adani returned to Ahmedabad to manage a plastics unit owned by his elder brother. This position introduced him to the world of global commodity trading, particularly the import of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The experience gained in managing the plastics business and navigating international trade channels proved foundational for his later ventures. Adani has a brother, Vinod Adani, who has also been involved in business activities associated with the family's enterprises.

Adani's early life was also marked by personal danger. In 1998, he survived a kidnapping attempt in Ahmedabad. Two individuals accused of involvement in the abduction were later tried in court; in 2018, a court in Ahmedabad acquitted the accused after a prolonged legal process. Additionally, Adani was reported to have survived the 2008 Mumbai attacks, having been present at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel during the terrorist siege.

Career

Founding of the Adani Group

Adani established the Adani Group in 1988, building on his experience in commodity trading and PVC imports. The company initially focused on trading in agricultural and energy commodities before diversifying into infrastructure development. The group's headquarters were established in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

A pivotal early step in the growth of the Adani Group was securing the contract to develop and operate Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Mundra Port grew to become India's largest private-sector port and a cornerstone of the group's logistics and trading operations. The port's strategic location on the western coast of India, along key international shipping routes, helped position the Adani Group as a major player in India's trade infrastructure.

Expansion into Energy and Infrastructure

Over the decades following its founding, the Adani Group expanded into numerous sectors, including power generation, coal mining, renewable energy, gas distribution, airports, cement, and media. The conglomerate grew to operate across multiple publicly listed companies, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission (later Adani Energy Solutions), and Adani Wilmar, among others.

Adani Power, the group's thermal power generation arm, operates power plants across India. In 2026, Bangladesh's government announced plans to renegotiate its power purchase agreement with Adani Power Ltd. in order to seek lower electricity prices, reflecting the international scope of the company's energy operations.

Adani's ambitions in the energy sector have included significant investments in thermal coal and, more recently, large-scale renewable energy projects. In September 2022, Bloomberg News noted the rapid growth of Adani's wealth, observing that his fortune had at various points surpassed that of Jeff Bezos. The BBC described Adani as a "school dropout" who had become Asia's richest person, highlighting his trajectory from diamond sorting to heading a conglomerate with operations in ports, airports, energy, and logistics.

In February 2026, Adani reviewed major power sector projects in Jharkhand and Bihar valued at over ₹40,000 crore (approximately $4.7 billion), underscoring continued investment in India's domestic energy infrastructure.

AI and Data Centre Strategy

In February 2026, the Adani Group announced a plan to invest $100 billion by 2035 to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres across India. The initiative represents a major strategic pivot toward digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence, areas the group identified as central to India's future economic growth. The plan was described as combining the group's existing strengths in energy generation and infrastructure with the growing global demand for data centre capacity driven by artificial intelligence workloads.

Hindenburg Research Report and Aftermath

On 24 January 2023, the American short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, led by Nate Anderson, published a report accusing the Adani Group of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" over a period of decades. The report alleged that the group had used a network of shell entities, many based in tax havens and controlled by Adani's brother Vinod Adani, to facilitate transactions that artificially inflated the stock prices of Adani Group companies. Hindenburg Research held short positions in Adani Group stocks at the time of the report's release.

The Adani Group responded on 29 January 2023 with a 413-page document rejecting the allegations, describing the Hindenburg report as "a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations" intended to "create a false market in securities to enable Hindenburg, an admitted short-seller, to book massive financial gain." The group also indicated it was evaluating legal action against Hindenburg Research.

Hindenburg Research responded by challenging the Adani Group to pursue litigation in the United States, where American discovery rules would apply. Reuters reported that Hindenburg Research had rarely been sued in the United States, and legal experts noted the difficulty of pursuing such cases against short sellers under American law.

The Economist reported on the affair in January 2023, noting the impact the short-seller's report had on the Adani empire and the broader questions it raised about corporate governance in Indian conglomerates. The Wall Street Journal also covered the dispute extensively.

The Hindenburg report triggered a massive sell-off in Adani Group stocks, with tens of billions of dollars in market capitalisation lost across the group's listed companies in the weeks that followed. The Adani Group called the report's claims "discredited" and the sell-off a result of market manipulation by the short seller.

In January 2024, the Supreme Court of India resolved the stock dispute arising from the Hindenburg allegations, dismissing petitions calling for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter.

U.S. Criminal Indictment and SEC Civil Lawsuit

On 20 November 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn unsealed a five-count criminal indictment charging Gautam Adani and other Adani Group executives with bribery. According to the indictment, Adani is alleged to have paid over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in order to secure solar energy contracts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, and Tamil Nadu.

In parallel, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Adani. In January 2026, the SEC case cleared a procedural hurdle related to the service of process, allowing the case to advance. Bloomberg News reported that Adani hired a prominent Wall Street lawyer in connection with the case, which observers interpreted as a sign that the SEC proceedings would move forward substantively. The American Bazaar reported that the SEC had moved ahead with the civil fraud case while parallel criminal proceedings remained ongoing.

Earlier Legal Issues

Prior to the Hindenburg controversy and the U.S. indictment, Adani and his associates had been involved in other legal matters in India. A court in Maharashtra discharged the Adani brothers in a cheating case in 2014. In a separate matter, a court in Ahmedabad withdrew non-bailable warrants that had been issued against Adani. In 2019, a court overturned a clean chit that had been given to the Adanis in a share-rigging case.

Political Associations

Adani has been described in Indian and international media as having a close relationship with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This perceived proximity has led to recurring allegations of cronyism, with critics questioning whether the Adani Group has benefited from favourable government policies and contracts. Both Adani and the Indian government have denied these allegations. The relationship between Adani and Modi dates back to Modi's tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat, during which the Adani Group expanded significantly in the state, particularly through the development of Mundra Port and associated special economic zones.

Personal Life

Gautam Adani has two children. He resides in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. His brother, Vinod Adani, has been involved in various business activities associated with the Adani Group and was named prominently in the Hindenburg Research report in connection with alleged offshore entities.

Adani survived a kidnapping attempt in Ahmedabad in 1998 and was also reported to have been present at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Recognition

In 2022, Time magazine included Gautam Adani in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, recognising his influence on India's infrastructure and energy sectors.

At various points in 2022 and 2023, Adani was ranked among the wealthiest people in the world by both Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In September 2022, Bloomberg noted that Adani's fortune had surpassed that of Jeff Bezos, making him briefly the second-wealthiest person in the world. The BBC profiled Adani as a school dropout who rose to become Asia's richest person, a trajectory it described as reflecting broader trends in Indian economic growth and the expansion of the country's private sector.

Following the Hindenburg report in January 2023, Adani's ranking on global wealth lists declined significantly as Adani Group stocks lost substantial market value. His wealth subsequently recovered partially as group stock prices stabilised and in some cases rebounded over the following years.

Legacy

Gautam Adani's career spans more than four decades of Indian economic history, from the country's pre-liberalisation era through the period of rapid growth that followed the economic reforms of 1991. The Adani Group's expansion from a small commodity trading firm into a conglomerate with interests in ports, energy, airports, cement, media, and digital infrastructure mirrors broader shifts in the Indian economy toward private-sector-led infrastructure development.

The Mundra Port development, which transformed a stretch of Gujarat's coastline into India's largest private port, is frequently cited as one of the most significant private infrastructure projects in modern Indian history. The group's expansion into renewable energy, and more recently into AI-ready data centre infrastructure with a $100 billion investment plan announced in 2026, reflects ongoing efforts to position the conglomerate at the centre of India's energy transition and digital economy ambitions.

At the same time, the controversies surrounding Adani — including the Hindenburg Research allegations, the U.S. criminal indictment on bribery charges, the SEC civil fraud case, and persistent questions about the group's relationship with the Indian government — have made him one of the most debated figures in global business. The outcome of the ongoing legal proceedings in the United States is expected to have significant implications both for Adani personally and for the broader perception of Indian corporate governance on the international stage.