Larry Ellison Surpasses Elon Musk to Become World’s Richest Person after his fortune increased by over $100 billion in one day
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk as the world’s richest individual after a sharp surge in Oracle’s share price lifted his fortune to $393bn, edging past Musk’s $384bn.
The 81-year-old billionaire, who holds a 41% stake in Oracle, saw his wealth soar on Wednesday when the software giant posted stronger-than-expected results. Oracle’s stock jumped over 40% in early trading to $340 per share, valuing the company at $958bn (£707bn). Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index noted it was both the firm’s largest single-day rise and the biggest one-day wealth gain ever recorded.
Ellison and Musk now rank far ahead of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Ellison’s wealth also comes from a stake in Tesla, ownership of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, a sailing team, and the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament. He has long ties with Musk, whom he has often been described as mentoring.
He served on Tesla’s board from 2018 to 2022 and invested $1bn in Musk’s purchase of Twitter (now X). According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, when asked to invest, Ellison replied he would contribute a billion dollars or “whatever you recommend.” Musk is also a frequent guest on Ellison’s Hawaiian island.
A supporter of Donald Trump, Ellison has appeared with him at the White House, including for the launch of the $500bn Stargate AI project. Musk, who initially had close ties with Trump before a recent fallout, is also backing Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Oracle’s surge is driven by soaring demand for its cloud services from AI firms, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which require massive datacentres.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, first claimed the top spot in 2021, briefly ceded it to Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, and regained it last year. After just over 300 days, Ellison has now taken the crown.
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