Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has become the world’s richest person, surpassing Tesla’s Elon Musk, after a significant surge in Oracle’s stock added over $100 billion to his fortune in a single day.
Ellison’s wealth now stands between $393 billion and $405 billion, depending on valuation time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes. The 81-year-old billionaire’s fortune jumped by a record $101 billion on Wednesday, the largest single-day increase ever recorded by Bloomberg’s wealth tracker.
The surge in Oracle’s shares, which had already risen 45% this year, was triggered by the company’s quarterly results that beat expectations and signaled further growth in its cloud business. Oracle’s stock soared 41% after the company announced strong bookings and an upbeat outlook for its cloud infrastructure unit. Ellison, who serves as chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle, holds the bulk of his fortune in the company’s stock. Oracle’s gains were driven by stunning quarterly results that revealed a 12% jump in revenue to $14.9 billion, cloud revenue growth of 28% to $7.2 billion, and a 359% increase in future performance obligations, now standing at $455 billion.
The company’s successful transformation into a cloud and AI-driven business has been well-received by investors, with Oracle securing multi-billion-dollar contracts with major players like OpenAI and Meta. CEO Safra Catz told investors that infrastructure revenue is expected to grow from $18 billion to $144 billion within the next five years, far above Wall Street’s estimates. Meanwhile, Musk’s wealth slipped to $385 billion amid falling Tesla shares and growing investor concerns over the Trump administration’s rollback of electric vehicle incentives.
