Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has claimed the title of the world’s richest man, overtaking Elon Musk after a staggering $101 billion surge in just 24 hours.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported Ellison’s net worth hit $393bn on Wednesday morning, surpassing Musk’s $385bn (£284bn).
The leap in fortune was driven by soaring demand for Oracle’s cloud and data center services, especially from artificial intelligence firms.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz disclosed that the company secured four multibillion-dollar contracts in the last quarter, with more major deals anticipated in the near term.
Shares of Oracle skyrocketed by over 40% by mid-morning Wednesday, one of the most remarkable single-day rallies ever for a company valued at nearly $700bn.
According to Bloomberg, Ellison’s wealth increase marks the “largest one-day jump ever recorded” in its Billionaires Index, which will refresh after markets close.
The 81-year-old billionaire, who co-founded Oracle in 1977, remains its largest individual shareholder, cementing his dominance as the tech firm’s key backer.
Ellison’s financial windfall reinforces Oracle’s pivotal role in the AI boom, following its landmark agreement earlier this year to supply OpenAI with 4.5 gigawatts of electricity to support its software.
Musk, who seized the world’s richest title in 2021, has mostly held onto it thanks to Tesla and SpaceX, though he briefly slipped behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault in 2021 and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in 2024.
Despite this dip, Musk retains vast wealth potential, including a Tesla pay package worth nearly $1 trillion if upcoming performance milestones are met.
Beyond technology, Ellison owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lana’i and revitalized the Indian Wells tennis tournament, often dubbed the sport’s “fifth slam.”
He also maintains close political ties, regularly appearing alongside President Donald Trump at White House tech events while overseeing Oracle’s major government contracts.
