Even as confidence in the Indian economy grew to record levels, India has had a strong year adding almost 100 billionaires this year as compared to last year, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2024. According to the report, Mumbai has overtaken Beijing to become Asia’s billionaire capital and Top-3 cities globally.
The number of billionaires in Mumbai is now 92, compared with 91 in Beijing, according to the report.
“Mumbai was the fastest growing billionaire capital in the world, adding 26 in the year and taking it to third in the world and Asia’s billionaire capital. New Delhi broke into the Top 10 for the first time. Palm Beach, Istanbul, Mexico City and Melbourne broke into the Hurun Top 30 Cities,” according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2024.
Mumbai’s wealth surged 47 per cent over the past year outshines Beijing’s 28 per cent decline, further cementing its status as a burgeoning wealth hub.
Overall also, India added far more number of billionaires than China. India witnessed 94 new billionaires this year, compared with 55 in China, according to the Hurun report.
Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian to enter the top-10 in the Hurun Global Rich List 2024. He added $33 billion to keep the title of the richest person in Asia.
Gautam Adani’s wealth rose 62 per cent to 15th place in the world with $86 billion.
Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “The number of known billionaires in the world is up 5 per cent to just under 3300, mainly on the back of a strong performance in stock markets.
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The Hurun Global Rich List tells the story of the global economy through the stories of the world’s richest individuals. Who’s up and who’s down highlights the economic trends of sectors and countries.”
Hoogewerf added that AI has been the major driver for wealth growth, generating over half of all the new wealth this year. Whilst Jensen Huang has grabbed many of the headlines as Nvidia broke through the $2 trillion mark and catapulting him into the Hurun Top 30 as a result, the billionaires behind Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle and Meta have seen significant surges in their wealth as investors bet on the value generated by AI.”
“The US led the way for new billionaires as stock markets rose to record heights. New York took back its crown of ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’ for the first time in seven years,” Hoogewerf said.
According to the report, wealth creation in China has gone through deep changes these last few years, with the wealth of billionaires from real estate and renewables down. Whilst as many as 40% of the Hurun Global Rich List from the high water mark two years ago have lost their billionaires status, China has added 120 new faces to the list. Despite the large drop in the number of billionaires, China still has more known billionaires than the US.
Russia added 6 billionaires in a year when the Ruble fell by 21% against the dollar and the MOEX Russia Index leaped by 44%. Metals & Mining and Energy had a good year, whilst Financial Services had a difficult year.”
“Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel added 9 billionaires to break into the top-20 countries for billionaires with 29,” it said.
