With 92 billionaires, Mumbai ranks third behind New York and London but ahead of Beijing and Shanghai.
Tuul and Bruno Morandi | Image bank | Getty Images
Move over, Beijing.
According to the Hurun Research Institute, Mumbai is currently the capital of Asia with the most billionaires global wealthy list.
For the first time, India’s most populous city has taken the top spot in Asia.
Topping the global list of wealthy cities for 2024 is New York (119), followed by London (97). According to Hurun, in Asia, Mumbai – the financial capital of India – leads with 92 billionaires. They are closely followed by Beijing (91) and Shanghai (87).
10 cities with the most billionaires
| Rank | City | Number of billionaires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 119 |
| 2 | London | 97 |
| 3 | Bombay | 92 |
| 4 | Beijing | 91 |
| 5 | Shanghai | 87 |
| 6 | Shenzhen | 84 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | 65 |
| 8 | Moscow | 59 |
| 9 | New Delhi | 57 |
| 10 | San Francisco | 52 |
Source: Hurun Research Institute
The report shows that there are currently 3,279 billionaires in the world, a rise of 5% compared to 2023.
According to the country rankings, China still tops the list with 814 billionaires, regardless that it lost 155 billionaires a yr earlier. The United States got here second with 800 billionaires, and India got here third with 271.
“China had a bad year,” the research firm noted. “Wealth creation in China has undergone profound changes over the past few years, with the wealth of real estate and renewable energy billionaires declining.”
10 countries with the most billionaires
| Rank | Country | Number of billionaires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 814 |
| 2 | United States | 800 |
| 3 | India | 271 |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 146 |
| 5 | Germany | 140 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 106 |
| 7 | Russia | 76 |
| 8 | Italy | 69 |
| 9 | France | 68 |
| 10 | Brazil | 64 |
Source: Hurun Research Institute
China’s Zhong Shanshan, founder and CEO of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring, has retained his position as China’s richest man. Colin Huang, founding father of e-commerce company Pinduoduo, overtook Tencent CEO Ma Huateng to take second place this yr.
According to Hurun, the United States, which added 109 billionaires in 2023, has only 14 fewer billionaires than China.
The report found that artificial intelligence was a big consider the increase in the variety of ultra-rich people in the US.
“While [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang made plenty of headlines as Nvidia crossed the $2 trillion mark, catapulting him into Hurun’s top 30. As a result, the billionaires behind Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle and Meta have seen their wealth grow significantly as investors bet on the value generated by AI,” the report says.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are the two biggest billionaires in the US, with net worths of $201 billion and $190 billion, respectively.
Taylor Swift joined Hurun Research’s list with a net price of $1.2 billion after kicking off her Eras tour in March and performing in the US, South America, Australia, Singapore and Tokyo.
“More than half of her wealth comes from royalties and touring, including $190 million from the first leg of the Eras tour and $35 million from the concert film. The rest is driven by the value of her music catalog, especially after selling her first six albums to Shamrock Kapital for $300 million in 2020,” the report reads.
After the United States, India is the second most latest member on the ultra-rich list, with 84 latest members.
The South Asian country is now the world’s fastest-growing economy after GDP growth of 8.4% in the October-December period.
According to Refinitiv data, in December the Indian stock exchange overtook the Hong Kong stock exchange and have become the seventh largest in the world, and its current valuation is over $4 trillion.
According to the Bloomberg index, the CEO of the Indian company Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, with a complete fortune of $110 billion, stays the richest person in Asia and the eleventh in the world.
Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of Adani Group, briefly overtook Ambani in January but is now three places behind him with a fortune of $97.9 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
