New UK PM Rishi Sunak Is Rich & Wife Akshata Murty's Net Worth Is More Than Most Royals
He's the first non-white PM in U.K. history!
Rishi Sunak. Right: Akshata Murty and Rishi Sunak.
Rishi Sunak is about the become one of the wealthiest prime ministers in the history of the United Kingdom — especially if you count his wife Akshata Murty's fortune when you add up his net worth.
Sunak won the nomination to lead the U.K.'s Conservative Party on Monday, setting him up to replace Liz Truss after her disastrous 45-day run as prime minister. The country is still about two years away from a general election, so he didn't actually win a nationwide vote to get the top job.
Nevertheless, Sunak is about to become the first non-white leader in the history of the country, two generations after his grandparents moved his family out of India.
The 42-year-old will also become the richest guy to hold the job, according to the Guinness Book Of Records.
Sunak and Murty are estimated to be worth a combined £730 million (US $824 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Murty is a fashion designer, but her true wealth comes from her family. Her dad, Narayana Murthy, founded the IT company Infosys in India as is now worth an estimated $4.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Murty owns just under 1% of Infosys and is said to be worth about £500 million (US $565 million), the Scotsman reports.
Sunak and Murty met at Stanford University in California, and he went on to earn his side of their fortune in investment banking after graduating from the school. He later became a Member of Parliament in the U.K. and eventually rose to be the chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e. the government's money guy).
The two caused a big stir in the U.K. earlier this year when it came out that Murty was paying less than expected in taxes because of her citizenship status.
Still, that hasn't proven to be enough to keep Sunak out of the top job, and the U.K. now has a leader with deeper pockets than most royals.
King Charles III's net worth is estimated to be somewhere around US $800 million, meaning he and Sunak have similar fortunes. Other members of the royal family, including Prince Harry and Prince William, are said to be worth tens of millions.
Now the big question remains: will he last longer than 45 days?