Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk to become the world’s richest man, following a record-breaking $101 billion rise in his net worth. The surge came after Oracle Corp.’s stock skyrocketed on the back of strong earnings and a bullish outlook for its cloud and AI business.
Oracle’s Historic Stock Rally
Oracle shares surged in after-hours trading on Tuesday, boosted by higher sales and investor optimism about cloud infrastructure. The momentum carried into Wednesday’s session, with the stock climbing more than 39 percent by late morning in New York.
Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer, owns about 1.16 billion shares, roughly 41% of the company. That stake propelled his net worth to $405 billion by 11 a.m. ET, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk’s wealth, meanwhile, stood at $384 billion.
Largest One-Day Wealth Gain in History
The $101 billion leap marked the single biggest one-day increase ever recorded by Bloomberg’s index. Ellison began Tuesday with a net worth of $294 billion. His wealth jumped $70 billion in after-hours trading before surpassing $100 billion once markets opened on Wednesday.
Musk Loses Top Spot
This shift ends Musk’s nearly year-long reign as the world’s richest person. The Tesla chief has seen his fortune dip due to a 13 percent decline in Tesla stock this year. Musk first topped the billionaire rankings in 2021 but has since rotated in and out of the lead with Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.
Oracle’s Transformation Fuels Investor Confidence
The surge reflects Oracle’s growing influence in the cloud computing market, where it competes with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. The company’s latest earnings highlighted rising bookings and strong AI-driven demand, further boosting investor confidence.
Ellison’s rise also underscores Oracle’s transformation. Once known as a traditional database provider, the company has reinvented itself as a major player in enterprise cloud and AI infrastructure.
For Ellison, this marks the first time he has claimed the title of world’s richest man. His wealth, long overshadowed by Silicon Valley rivals, has now surged past them in dramatic fashion.
For Musk, the development is a reminder of the volatility of global markets. With large stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures, his fortune remains vast, but no longer the largest.
