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Larry Ellison Surpasses Elon Musk as World’s Richest Individual Amid Oracle Stock Surge
Larry Ellison, the American tech billionaire, has surpassed Elon Musk to become the world’s wealthiest individual after Oracle, the company he co-founded, saw its stock price soar during early trading on Wednesday.
Ellison’s fortune jumped significantly following Oracle’s release of better than expected earnings. He holds a 41% ownership in the company.
Shares of Oracle surged over 40% in early trading, reaching $340 each. This boosted the software firm’s market capitalization to $958bn (£707bn), placing the value of Ellison’s stake at $393bn, slightly ahead of Musk’s $384bn net worth, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
This marks not only the largest single-day increase in Oracle’s stock price but also the biggest one-day jump in personal wealth ever recorded on the Bloomberg index. Both Ellison and Musk maintain a considerable lead over other tech moguls like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
At 81, Ellison has additional assets beyond Oracle, including investments in Tesla where Musk serves as CEO, a professional sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and ownership of a Hawaiian island, Bloomberg reports.
Despite often being seen as a controversial figure in business and political circles, Musk has a close relationship with Ellison, who is frequently referred to as a mentor to the South African born entrepreneur.
Ellison served on Tesla’s board from 2018 to 2022 and contributed $1bn toward Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, when Musk asked Ellison to invest in the platform, Ellison replied he would commit a billion dollars or “whatever you recommend.” The book also notes that Musk frequently visits Ellison’s island in Hawaii, Lanai.
Ellison is a known supporter of Donald Trump and has appeared with him at the White House on multiple occasions, including the announcement of the Stargate project—a $500bn initiative aimed at developing AI infrastructure in the U.S. Musk, who was previously aligned with Trump and is backing his 2024 presidential campaign, had a strong connection with the former president before their relationship soured earlier this year.
Oracle remains the primary driver of Ellison’s fortune, with its recent gains largely fueled by increased demand from AI companies for its cloud computing services. These services are essential for powering technologies developed by firms like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, which require massive data centers to function.
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