Elon Musk briefly ceded the crown of “world’s richest person” to Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison on Wednesday, after a stunning surge in Oracle’s market value sent Ellison’s fortune soaring.
According to Bloomberg, Ellison’s net worth spiked by $89 billion to $383.2 billion following Oracle’s blockbuster earnings report Tuesday evening.
The company’s stock skyrocketed on the back of unprecedented demand for data center capacity from AI firms. At one point, shares climbed 43% before settling at a 36% gain, Oracle’s biggest one-day jump since 1992.
The rally catapulted Ellison, Oracle’s largest individual shareholder, to the top of the global wealth rankings for several hours, surpassing Musk.
By the end of trading, however, Musk reclaimed the lead with a net worth of $384.2 billion, narrowly edging out Ellison by $1 billion.
Safra Catz, Oracle’s CEO, revealed that the company signed four multibillion-dollar contracts last quarter and expects several more to follow.
She highlighted Oracle’s growing dominance as a provider of cloud infrastructure for AI companies, the very foundation of its business. In July, Oracle announced it would supply OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, with 4.5 gigawatts of electricity to fuel its AI systems.
“We’ll be talking about this one for a long time,” wrote Ben Reitzes, an analyst at Melius Research, calling Oracle’s $455 billion backlog of AI service demand “staggering.”
The stock’s surge was historic. Oracle’s market capitalization swelled by $244 billion to $922 billion, vaulting the company into the top 10 of the S&P 500 by overtaking Eli Lilly, Walmart, and JPMorgan Chase.
Ellison’s personal fortune rose as much as $101 billion before settling at a gain of $89 billion — Bloomberg described it as the “biggest one-day increase ever recorded” by its billionaire index.
Oracle’s explosive growth places it alongside other AI-fueled giants like Nvidia and Microsoft.
“Microsoft and Oracle really aren’t software companies anymore – they are AI cloud infrastructure stocks that happen to sell software too,” said Reitzes.
Shares of Oracle are now up 97% year-to-date, prompting analysts at Citi and Bank of America to upgrade the stock to “buy.” In stark contrast, Tesla’s shares have dropped 14% in 2025, dragging down Musk’s overall wealth.
Musk, who first became the world’s richest person in 2021, has occasionally slipped behind rivals such as LVMH chief Bernard Arnault and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Yet he has consistently regained the position, aided by Tesla, SpaceX, and a mammoth pay package worth nearly $1 trillion if Tesla hits future milestones.
Ellison’s journey to this rare financial milestone began in 1977 when he co-founded Oracle after dropping out of college.
Now 81, he owns nearly all of Hawaii’s Lana’i island and has transformed the Indian Wells tennis event into a world-class competition often dubbed the “fifth slam.”
A longtime ally of Donald Trump, Ellison has been spotted at White House tech events and has previously been linked to potential deals involving TikTok.
