&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "From college dropout to no.1: Larry Ellison overtakes Elon Musk to become world’s richest man")
Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk to become the wealthiest individual on the planet, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. The 81-year-old Oracle co-founder now holds an estimated net worth of $393 billion, up by a record-breaking $101 billion in a single day following Oracle Corp.’s impressive quarterly report. This dramatic increase in Ellison’s fortune stems from Oracle’s booming stock, which surged by 40% to $338 per share after the company shared an optimistic outlook for its cloud computing services. At around 10:10am in New York, Ellison’s holdings — around 1.16 billion Oracle shares — boosted him past Musk, whose wealth stood at $385 billion at the time.
Ellison’s rapid ascent follows a string of strong performances by Oracle, especially in the AI and cloud computing space. The company’s shares have more than tripled since ChatGPT went public in late 2022, fueled by surging demand for computing infrastructure from AI-focused firms. A significant boost came when Oracle struck a massive 4.5-gigawatt data center deal with OpenAI in July. Major clients like Nvidia and TikTok (owned by ByteDance) have further positioned Oracle as a serious contender against long-time cloud heavyweights like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
Who Is Larry Ellison?
Larry Ellison is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle, a major software company best known for its database products. The firm is now gaining major ground in cloud services, a market largely dominated by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Raised in Chicago after being adopted as an infant, Ellison dropped out of both the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. He later moved to California and worked as a programmer at Ampex, where he helped develop a database project for the CIA — a prototype for what would become Oracle. In 1977, Ellison and two colleagues launched the company that would evolve into Oracle Corp. It went public in 1986, just one day before Microsoft’s IPO. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014, taking on the roles of chairman and CTO.
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Today, Ellison owns more than 40% of Oracle. His personal investment portfolio includes stakes in Tesla, a sailing team, luxury properties across the U.S., the Indian Wells tennis tournament, and even the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Oracle’s Cloud Surge
Oracle’s recent success is closely tied to the AI boom and increasing enterprise demand for cloud infrastructure. Aiding its momentum are political connections — particularly Ellison’s strong support for Donald Trump. Since Trump’s return to office in January, Oracle has seen an uptick in visibility and potential government-backed opportunities.
The company is a key player in the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure program introduced by the current administration and is also a top contender to acquire the U.S. arm of TikTok, a move supported by Trump but still awaiting Chinese regulatory approval.
