Meet Rakesh Gangwal, IndiGo co-founder and Southwest Airlines Chair, on Forbes' ‘America's Richest Immigrants 2025' list

Mint

14-07-2025

Business publication Forbes last week released its lists of richest Americans for this year, 2025, and also included a nod to the many immigrants in the US.
In fact, top three of the top 10 richest people in America are immigrants — Elon Musk (from South Africa, ranked first with an estimated $393.1 billion), Sergey Brin (Russia, second with 139.7 billion), and Jensen Huang (Taiwan, third with $137.9 billion). All data is latest as of July 7, 2025.
Notably, Rakesh Gangwal, co-founder of IndiGo Airlines parent InterGlobe Aviation and Chairman of the Southwest Airlines board of directors, has made it to the Forbes list at the 29th spot with a net worth of $6.6 billion.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI), Rakesh Gangwal is worth an estimated $7.83 billion, largely from his 14 per cent stake in India's biggest airline by market share, IndiGo.
His stake in InterGlobe Aviation, a Gurgaon-based airline services provider and the operator of IndiGo, is held directly and through a trust, as per a BB report.
Born in 1953 in Kolkata, Rakesh Gangwal earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from the India Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT – Kanpur) in 1975; followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
He began his career as a financial analyst at Ford Motor Co. and as a production and planning engineer with Philips India. In was associated with United Airlines in 1980 and joined the airline in 1984 as a manager for strategic planning, according to Bloomberg.
He became an executive vice president for Air France in 1994, and then later became CEO of US Airways in 1998, from where he resigned in 2001 before founding IndiGo in 2006, which listed in 2015, the BB report added.
He was appointed the Chairman of Southwest Airlines board of directors in November 2024. Nearly two-thirds of the 125 billionaire immigrants identified by Forbes were born in these 10 countries and territories.
India topped the 2025 list with 12 immigrant billionaires, compared to 7 in 2022.
It was followed by Israel and Taiwan, each having 11 billionaires on the 2025 list, compared to 10 and four from 2022.
Canada comes in next with nine billionaires in 2025, compared to eight in 2022; followed by China with eight billionaires this year, up from seven in 2022.
Germany and Iran are the next tie, each with six billionaire immigrants in the US in 2025, up from six and two, respectively since 2022.
The next three spots were: France with five (2025 and 2022), followed by tied Hungary with four (2025 and 2022) and Ukraine with four (three in 2022).
The Forbes 'America's Richest Immigrants 2025' list features a record 125 foreign-born US citizens who are billionaires, a significant jump from the 92 tallied in 2022, data showed.
Hailing from 41 countries, these immigrants gained their wealth in the US and currently live in the country, it added. They hail from 41 countries but became rich in America and account for 14 per cent of the country's billionaires, it added.
The people on the list hold a record $1.3 trillion combined, which is 18 per cent of America's $7.2 trillion in total billionaire wealth. Further, a whopping 93 per cent of these billionaires are self-made — nearly 70 per cent from either the tech or finance sectors. Elon Musk — worth $393.1 billion — Tesla, SpaceX — South Africa
Sergey Brin — worth $139.7 billion — Google — Russia
Jensen Huang — worth $137.9 billion — Nvidia — Taiwan
Thomas Peterffy — worth $67.9 billion — Interactive Brokers — Hungary
Miriam Adelson & family — worth $33.4 billion — Las Vegas Sands — Israel