Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it appears that fortunes can be made overnight. In a stunning shift at the very top of global wealth rankings, Larry Ellison, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Oracle Corporation, has surpassed Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person. This feat is directly linked to an extraordinary surge in Oracle’s stock this week.
Oracle’s shares soared nearly 40% on Tuesday, making it the biggest single-day gain since 1999, after a blockbuster quarterly earnings report and an ambitious growth forecast in its cloud and AI business. The company also announced that it had signed four multibillion-dollar contracts totalling $455 billion in bookings, far outperforming analyst projections.
Oracle’s CEO, Safra Catz, further revealed ambitious growth forecasts, hinting that infrastructure revenue would continue to soar in the near future.
Ellison’s 41% stake in Oracle catapulted his net worth to approximately $388 billion, edging past Musk’s estimated $384 billion. Bloomberg reported that Ellison gained around $101 billion in value by mid-morning on September 10, marking the largest one-day wealth gain ever tracked.
Business Insider also reports a climb of over $110 billion, while Axios and other outlets cite similar figures ranging between $70 billion and $112 billion in net worth increase.
Oracle’s strategic pivot toward AI-driven cloud infrastructure has paid off in a big way. The company is capitalising on rising market demand for AI data centres and inferencing services, fuelled by major clients such as OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and others. This shift has drawn investor attention and confidence, both in Oracle’s current performance and in its long-term prospects. As a result, Ellison’s wealth has ballooned, built on the foundation of Oracle’s rising valuation.
| Metric | Details |
| Date of Wealth Shift | September 10, 2025 |
| Stock Surge | ~40% gain—biggest since 1999 |
| Bookings Signed | $455 billion in cloud and AI contracts |
| Ellison’s Net Worth | ~$388 billion |
| Musk’s Net Worth | ~$384 billion |
| Reported Wealth Gain | $70B–$110B depending on source |
Larry Ellison was born on August 17, 1944 (81 years old). He co-founded Oracle in 1977, guiding it from a small database start-up to a global leader in enterprise software and cloud infrastructure. Now serving as Oracle’s CTO and executive chairman, he continues to steer its aggressive expansion into AI and infrastructure.
More recently, Ellison has also taken positions outside of Oracle, for instance, increasing his holdings in Oxford Nanopore Technologies, signaling his interest in biotech and applied science. Ellison’s leap shows how central AI has become in defining market leadership among titans of industry.