Larry Ellison Becomes The Richest Man In The World After Oracle Skyrockets

Larry Ellison, the co-founder, technical chief and executive chairman of Oracle, has long been among the wealthiest people on the planet. But on September 10, 2025, he made history, thanks to a massive one-day surge in Oracle’s stock, he overtook Elon Musk to briefly become the world’s richest person. While by market close Musk slipped ahead again by just about a billion dollars, the scale of Ellison’s rise and the path he followed deserve a closer look.

In this blog, we’ll trace Ellison’s net worth journey, the dips and peaks that defined his wealth story, compare it with Musk’s roller-coaster trajectory, and explore how the AI boom has reshaped Oracle into an unexpected market leader.

A Long Climb from Database King to AI Beneficiary

Ellison’s wealth has always been tied closely to Oracle, the company he co-founded in 1977. Initially known as a database software provider, Oracle became one of Silicon Valley’s most consistent enterprise players, but it often lacked the headline appeal of consumer-facing giants like Apple or Google.

His fortune mirrored this trajectory:

• 2012: Forbes estimated his net worth at US$36 billion.
• 2018: His fortune rose to about US$58 billion, reflecting Oracle’s steady expansion into cloud and software.
• 2021: Ellison crossed US$100 billion as Oracle began betting bigger on cloud infrastructure.
• 2024: Bloomberg placed him at roughly US$150 billion, still behind Musk, Bezos, and Arnault.
• 2025: His wealth accelerated past US$290 billion by September, before this week’s historic one-day leap of over US$100 billion pushed him to US$393 billion (Bloomberg, Reuters).

The Biggest Single-Day Gain Ever Recorded

The turning point was Oracle’s latest quarterly report, which surprised even the most bullish analysts. Key highlights:

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) revenue surged 65% yoy, driven by AI companies signing massive multi-year contracts.
• The company now projects its cloud business could eventually hit US$144 billion in annual revenue.
• Oracle shares jumped as much as 45% in extended trading, the largest increase in its history.
• For Ellison, who owns around 40% of Oracle, it meant a US$100-101 billion wealth increase in one day; a record-breaking surge in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
• By the end of trading, Oracle stock cooled slightly, leaving Ellison about US$1 billion behind Musk, but the symbolic takeover had already been made.

Ellison vs Musk: Two Wealth Journeys, Two Tech Waves

• Musk’s Rise
  • Fueled by the electric vehicle revolution.
  • Tesla’s growth took his net worth from under US$30 billion in 2019 to over US$300 billion by late 2021.
  • SpaceX and other ventures added momentum, but volatility has been high as Tesla stock swings often move Musk’s fortune by tens of billions in days.
• Ellison’s Rise
  • For decades, he grew steadily alongside Oracle’s reputation as a safe enterprise player.
  • The AI boom flipped that perception, with Oracle Cloud positioned as a critical supplier of compute power for AI workloads.
  • His fortune has quadrupled since late 2022, rising from ~US$80 billion to nearly US$400 billion today.
• The Bigger Picture
  • Musk’s wealth is a story of consumer hype and EV adoption.
  • Ellison’s is now the story of enterprise AI infrastructure demand.
  • One rode consumer enthusiasm; the other now rides the backbone of AI’s industrial buildout.

Net Worth Journey: Larry Ellison vs Elon Musk

Source: Bloomberg, Forbes

Oracle’s Surprise Role in the AI Era

What makes Ellison’s surge even more fascinating is that Oracle wasn’t seen as a front-runner in the AI race. For years:

• Microsoft, Amazon, and Google were considered the dominant cloud players.
• Oracle was often seen as a laggard in cloud computing.
• But recent AI contracts changed the narrative. Demand for Oracle’s GPU clusters and training capacity is now described as “outstripping supply”.
• With global data center expansion and deep enterprise ties, Oracle has pivoted from being a legacy database company to a core AI infrastructure enabler almost overnight.

What Ellison’s Rise Signals

Larry Ellison’s rise to the top of the wealth charts, even if brief, tells a bigger story than personal fortune:

• It shows how the center of gravity in technology keeps shifting from personal computing to internet platforms, from EVs to AI infrastructure.
• Musk became the world’s richest man on the back of the EV boom. Ellison nearly dethroned him on the strength of the AI boom.
• Their stories highlight how different innovations can reshape global fortunes at unprecedented speed.

Though Musk may have reclaimed the crown by a sliver, Ellison’s record-setting surge signals that the AI wave is only beginning and Oracle, once overlooked, is now riding at its crest.

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