G autam Adani is an Indian self-made billionaire industrialist who is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a massive and diversified conglomerate with a major presence in India's infrastructure sector. A college dropout, he started his career as a commodities trader and founded his own company in 1988. He has since built it into one of India's largest and most powerful business empires, with close ties to the government.

The Adani Group has a sprawling portfolio with core businesses in port management (it is India's largest private port operator), power generation and transmission, and green energy (Adani Green Energy is one of the world's largest solar power developers). He has also expanded aggressively into other sectors, including airports, data centers, and cement. His wealth has experienced a meteoric and often controversial rise, making him one of the richest people in Asia, though his group has also faced significant scrutiny over its high levels of debt and its corporate governance practices.