Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has dethroned Elon Musk this week as the richest person in the world, after his net worth skyrocketed to an unprecedented $393 billion. The one-day surge, which amounted to a leap of $101 billion, occurred on Sept. 10 as Oracle stock soared more than 40 percent based on optimism about the company’s artificial intelligence future.
Sorry, Elon
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the increased pushed Ellison past Musk, whose net worth sits at $385 billion. By the end of trading, Ellison’s fortune was closer to $383 billion, just below Musk.
Oracle’s latest earnings report projected major growth in cloud revenue tied to AI demand. CEO Safra Catz told investors that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue, projected at $18 billion this fiscal year, could rise to $144 billion by 2030 as the company has multibillion-dollar deals with OpenAI, xAI, and Meta.
Oracle offers a range of technology products and services for businesses, including cloud computing, enterprise databases like the well-known Oracle Database, and hardware such as servers and storage systems, among other tech tools.
While Ellison’s takeover of Musk as the richest man in the world was brief, it might be the last time it happens. Musk could become the first trillionaire under new Tesla pay plan, The New York Times reports. Last week, Tesla’s board unveiled a compensation package for Musk that could be worth $900 billion if he meets the board’s targets.
Ellison’s journey to wealth was not what many might have expected. He was born in 1944 to an unwed mother and was later adopted by his aunt and uncle in Chicago. He went on to attend the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, but left before graduating. Instead, he moved to California with dreams of becoming a computer programmer. Ellison didn’t meet his biological mother again until he was 44.
In 1977, he co-founded Oracle in Santa Clara, California. The company soon dominated the database software market, later expanding into cloud computing. Today, Oracle is the fourth-largest software company in the world, behind Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet. The company has a market capitalization near $1 trillion.
Ellison was CEO until 2014 but remains chairman and chief technology officer, overseeing Oracle’s move into AI-powered cloud services.
Ellison has become famous for his yachts, estates, and ventures in aviation and tennis. According to the New York Times, he spent a whopping $200 million building a Japanese-inspired villa in California and even purchased the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Ellison, like Musk, has aligned himself with President Donald Trump, appearing at the White House to announce major tech initiatives. He also financed a majority of his son David Ellison’s $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global.
