For the first time in his career, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison briefly ascended to the top of the global wealth rankings on Wednesday, edging past Elon Musk after a historic surge in Oracle’s stock price.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ellison’s fortune climbed to $393 billion (£290bn) in early trading, placing him ahead of Musk’s $385 billion (£284bn).
The leap came after Oracle stunned Wall Street with quarterly earnings that exceeded analyst expectations and a bullish forecast tied to artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships.
Ellison’s wealth rose by an astonishing $89 billion in a single day, the largest one-day increase ever recorded for an individual, reflecting investor confidence in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure growth. By the end of the day, Musk had narrowly reclaimed the top spot, with a margin of just $1 billion.
At 80, Ellison has seen his net worth largely rise and fall with Oracle’s performance since founding the company in 1977.
But this week marked a milestone: the first time his fortune has outpaced those of the tech titans who typically dominate the list, from Musk to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and France’s Bernard Arnault.
Shares of Oracle soared more than 40 percent after the firm revealed it had secured four multibillion-dollar AI contracts, with Chief Executive Safra Catz predicting more in the pipeline.
The company now projects a 77 percent jump in cloud revenue this year, reaching $18 billion, underscoring the fierce demand for computing power to fuel generative AI systems.
Musk, meanwhile, faces headwinds that have dented Tesla’s stock value. Investor unease has grown over President Donald Trump’s rollback of electric vehicle incentives and consumer discontent with Musk’s outspoken political positions.
Tesla’s challenges have translated into a slide in Musk’s fortune, though analysts caution that his wealth could bounce back dramatically if the company’s board approves a proposed $1 trillion (£740bn) compensation package linked to ambitious growth targets.
