Gautam Adani overtakes Mukesh Ambani on Forbes India's 100 Richest list 2026: Check top 10 richest Indians and full list

Gautam Adani has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on the 2026 Forbes list of India's 100 richest, ending a three-year run as the country's second-richest person. A $20.7 billion jump took the Adani family fortune to $112.7 billion.

According to the list released by Forbes on Thursday, the combined wealth of the 100 richest Indians is unchanged at about $1 trillion from the last time fortunes were measured. This comes in a year when the rupee fell 8.5 per cent and the stock market dropped 9.5 per cent.

Also read: Gautam Adani reclaims top spot as India’s richest, edges out Mukesh Ambani: Hurun Rich List


Adani is the biggest gainer in dollar terms. His family wealth is still below the $150 billion peak it hit in 2022. The Adani Group is on an expansion drive and is investing $100 billion in AI infrastructure.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani moves to No. 2 with a net worth of $86.3 billion. That is a fall of $18.7 billion. Margin pressures, including in retail, weighed on Reliance shares.

Ambani is preparing for the listing of Jio Platforms. The telecom arm has received regulatory approval for an IPO that could raise up to $3.8 billion. That could make it the country's largest public offering to date.

Savitri Jindal of the O.P. Jindal Group stays at No. 3 and remains India's richest woman. Her fortune edges down to $39.8 billion.

Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal jumps eight places to No. 4. His net worth rises 74 per cent to $34.7 billion. In May, he and Adar Poonawalla, son of No. 6 Cyrus Poonawalla, bought the IPL team Rajasthan Royals in a deal that valued the franchise at $1.65 billion.

The fortunes of more than half the listees fell. AI-led automation has hurt India's software services sector, and tech billionaires felt the impact. Shiv Nadar (No. 7, $27.4 billion), Azim Premji (No. 32, $7.87 billion) and N.R. Narayana Murthy (No. 78, $3.95 billion) all saw their wealth decline.

Infosys co-founders Nandan Nilekani and Senapathy Gopalakrishnan are among 11 people who dropped off the list.

Separately, the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2026 also put Adani at the top, with his family's wealth rising 13 per cent to Rs 9.23 lakh crore ($96 billion), ahead of Ambani and family at Rs 8.63 lakh crore ($90 billion), a fall of 10 per cent.

The Hurun list, which covers 1,810 individuals with wealth of at least Rs 1,000 crore, shows their combined wealth at Rs 187.5 lakh crore ($1.96 trillion), up 12.8 per cent from last year and equal to nearly half of India's GDP. India now has a record 391 dollar billionaires, up from 237 five years ago.

The net worth figures differ from the Forbes list because the two rankings use different methodologies and valuation dates.

Newcomers and returnees

There are four new entrants:

• Krishna Chivukula (No. 66, $4.35 billion), whose precision engineering firm Indo-MIM listed in July
• Kushal and Chaitanya Desai (No. 69, $4.25 billion), after shares of their cables company Apar Industries nearly doubled
• Aditya Khemka (No. 83, $3.6 billion), whose security equipment maker Aditya Infotech went public in 2025
• The Virani brothers (No. 90, $3.45 billion), behind Balaji Wafers, which sold a minority stake to US private equity firm General Atlantic in January

Seven people returned to the list. They include Anil Agarwal (No. 41, $6.4 billion), who split Vedanta into five listed entities in June. The minimum net worth to make the list fell to $3 billion from $3.2 billion last year.

Top 10 richest Indians, 2026

1. Gautam Adani and family: $112.7 billion
2. Mukesh Ambani: $86.3 billion
3. Savitri Jindal: $39.8 billion
4. Lakshmi Mittal: $34.7 billion
5. Sunil Mittal and family: $32.9 billion
6. Cyrus Poonawalla: $28.4 billion
7. Shiv Nadar: $27.4 billion
8. Dilip Shanghvi: $26.3 billion
9. Kumar Birla: $23.2 billion
10. Hinduja family: $21.2 billion

Forbes used shareholding and financial data from families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators. Unlike its world billionaires ranking, this list includes family fortunes shared among extended families, such as the Bajaj and Burman families.

Also read: Ambani uses ₹10 power again for the next disruption in a hot Indian market

Net worths are based on stock prices and exchange rates at market close on September 11, 2026. Private companies are valued against similar listed firms.