Oracle founder Larry Ellison has become the world’s richest person, surpassing Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who held the title for nearly a year. A surge in Oracle’s stock boosted Ellison’s wealth by $101 billion after the company reported quarterly results exceeding expectations and issued a strong outlook.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Ellison’s net worth now stands at $393 billion, edging out Musk’s $385 billion, marking the largest single-day wealth increase ever recorded by the index.
Musk first claimed the top spot in 2021 but was briefly overtaken by Jeff Bezos and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault before reclaiming it last year for over 300 consecutive days. Ellison, who climbed to second place in July due to Oracle’s stock rally, founded the company and served as its CEO until 2014, when he became chairman and chief technology officer. His 40% stake in Oracle accounts for most of his fortune.
Oracle’s optimistic forecast has positioned it as a major beneficiary of the AI boom. The company projects $18 billion in revenue from its cloud infrastructure unit, which drives its AI operations, for the current fiscal year—a 77% increase from last year’s $10 billion.
The surge underscores Oracle’s growing dominance in cloud computing and AI. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranks third on the billionaires’ list with $269 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos with $258 billion.