Larry Ellison, the 81-year-old co-founder of Oracle, has stormed past Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person after an unprecedented surge in Oracle Corp.’s stock added more than $101 billion to his fortune in a single day.
By late Wednesday morning in New York, Ellison’s net worth had soared to $405 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, overtaking Musk’s $384 billion. It marks the largest one-day wealth increase ever recorded and ends Musk’s near year-long reign at the top.
Oracle’s Stock Rally Changes Everything
The leap followed Oracle’s quarterly earnings report, which revealed a sharp rise in sales and a bullish outlook for its cloud and artificial intelligence business. Investors responded with enthusiasm, driving the company’s shares up by more than 39 percent in pre-market and morning trading.
Ellison, who owns around 41 percent of Oracle — about 1.16 billion shares — was the biggest winner of the surge. His wealth, which stood at $294 billion on Tuesday morning, exploded past $400 billion within 24 hours.
A Lifelong Climb to the Top
Ellison’s journey to becoming the world’s richest man has been marked by steady growth, bold risks, and long-term vision. He co-founded Oracle in 1977 and spent 37 years as its CEO before stepping aside in 2014 to become chairman and chief technology officer.
In 2012, he famously bought nearly all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for $300 million and relocated there permanently in 2020. Beyond Oracle, Ellison has also invested in Tesla — serving on its board from 2018 to 2022 — and owns nearly half of Paramount Skydance, a $28 billion media giant formed in 2025 through a merger involving his son David’s Skydance.
For decades, Ellison was seen as trailing Silicon Valley’s flashier billionaires. Yet his consistency in transforming Oracle from a traditional database company into a cloud and AI powerhouse has finally paid off on an historic scale.
Musk Slips to Second Place
For Musk, the dethroning comes amid a 13 percent drop in Tesla’s stock this year, which has weighed on his wealth despite his vast holdings in SpaceX and other ventures. Musk, who first became the world’s richest man in 2021, has frequently traded places with Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault but now finds himself displaced by Ellison’s meteoric rise.
Oracle’s AI Era Redefines Wealth
Oracle’s success reflects its growing role in the high-stakes global cloud and AI race, competing directly with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. The company’s recent surge in bookings and bold AI strategy has ignited investor confidence, proving that even long-standing tech firms can reinvent themselves.
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Ellison’s triumph is not just financial — it is a crowning moment in a career that has spanned nearly half a century, built on patience, innovation, and an uncanny ability to adapt. For Musk, it is a reminder that in today’s markets, fortunes can change faster than ever.
