Larry Ellison briefly took the title of the world’s richest person on Wednesday, surpassing Elon Musk after a remarkable surge in Oracle’s stock price. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ellison's fortune skyrocketed to $393 billion, eclipsing Musk's wealth, which stood at $385 billion. This financial leap followed Oracle's astonishing announcement that stunned Wall Street, revealing optimistic projections for its cloud and artificial intelligence sectors. Following the news of new contracts with major players like OpenAI, Meta, and Nvidia, Oracle's shares surged by more than 40%.
The 81-year-old chairman of Oracle, Larry Ellison, witnessed an incredible increase of over $100 billion in his net worth in just one day, marking the largest one-day wealth increase ever recorded. During a conference with analysts on Tuesday, Ellison remarked, “Clearly, we had an amazing start to the year because Oracle has become the go-to place for AI workloads.” However, by the end of trading on the same day, some of those gains had diminished. Musk reclaimed the top position with a net worth of $384 billion, while Ellison's wealth settled at $383 billion.
Elon Musk, who resides in Texas, has experienced a decline in his wealth this year, primarily due to a 12% drop in Tesla shares amid investor concerns and various political controversies. Nevertheless, Musk stands to benefit significantly in the future, as Tesla’s board has proposed a lucrative pay package that could exceed $1 trillion, contingent on meeting long-term performance targets.
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, established the company in 1977 and continues to serve as its chairman and chief technology officer. He is known for his ownership of the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi, where he spends a considerable amount of his time. In addition to his role at Oracle, Ellison is involved in several significant ventures across different sectors, including an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, which is spearheaded by his son, as well as the Ellison Institute of Technology at Oxford University.
In California, the title of the richest resident is held by Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth of $258.8 billion ranks him third globally. The Bay Area is home to several other billionaires who dominate the global wealth rankings. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin occupy the fifth and sixth positions, respectively, with net worths of $210 billion and $196 billion. Additionally, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, a key figure in the ongoing AI boom, ranks ninth with a fortune estimated at $154 billion.
