Kumar Mangalam Birla, with wealth amounting to $2.1 billion, is the eighth richest man under 40 outside the US. Sabeer Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft a few years ago, is 23rd with $400 million.
Birla and Bhatia are the two Indians in the list of 40 baby-moguls outside the US put together by Fortune magazine. Although Fortune has been publishing a list of US baby moguls since 1999, this is the first time it has come out with an international list.
Also in the list is Reuben Singh, a British citizen of Indian origin, who, at 25, has amassed a fortune of $151 million. He is the youngest name in the list. Singh's RS Group, of which he is the chairman, has interests in currency trading and wireless Internet services.
In the latest list of US baby moguls, there are two of Indian origin: Sudhakar Ravi of SonicWALL, with $119.1 million, and Sreekanth Ravi, also of SonicWALL, with $119 million. The US list is topped by Michael Dell of Dell Computers, who lords over a fortune of $16.49 billion.
The international list is headed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil baron with $7.2 billion to his name. He is followed by Ernesto Bertarelli ($4.7 billion) of Swiss biotech firm Serono, German Stefan Qandt ($4.5 billion) of BMW, and Russian oilman Roman Abramowich ($4.2 billion). Richard Li, chairman of the Hongkong-based Pacific Century Group and son of Lee Ka-Shin, Hong Kong's richest man, is 10th in the list with a kitty of $1.6 billion. Thirteen Asians have made it to the list, with eight from China alone.
Commenting on the list, Fortune said: "The rest of the world is no slouch when it comes to producing youthful mega-money men. Today, mere millionaires stand no chance of making the list. It will take $136 million just to match Wang Yusuo (last, at number 40), while a billion dollars will just scrape through to the top 15."
Interestingly, there are more billionaires in the international list than in the US list, and while the former ends with Yusuo's $136 million, the latter ends W Glen Boyd's $108 million.
The US list of baby moguls also gives an idea of the money made by sportsmen in the country. While Michael Jordan is ninth in the list with $408 million, Tiger Woods, the youngest in the list, is 16th with $212 million. Andre Agassi is 35th with $120.3 million.
