Ellison Briefly Surpasses Musk as World’s Richest Amid Oracle Stock Surge
US tech billionaire Larry Ellison came close to dethroning Elon Musk as the world’s richest person on Wednesday after Oracle’s soaring stock briefly pushed his fortune ahead of the Tesla boss.
Ellison’s wealth spiked following Oracle’s stronger-than-expected earnings report.
Shares of the business software giant, where Ellison holds a 41% stake, jumped more than 40% in early trading, briefly valuing the company at around $960 billion (£707bn).
That surge put Ellison’s stake at $393bn, edging him past Musk’s estimated $384bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
However, the lead was short-lived. Oracle’s stock closed at $328, up 36%, bringing Ellison’s holding to $378bn, placing Musk narrowly back on top.
The pair remain comfortably ahead of other tech titans, including Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
Ellison, 81, draws his wealth from more than Oracle.
He owns a stake in Tesla, a Hawaiian island (Lanai), the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and even funds a sailing team.
Despite their competition in wealth rankings, Ellison and Musk share close ties.
Ellison, often described as a mentor to Musk, sat on Tesla’s board from 2018 to 2022 and contributed $1bn to Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now X.
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, Ellison agreed to invest “a billion dollars or whatever you recommend.” Musk is also a frequent visitor to Ellison’s Lanai estate.
Both men have also cultivated relationships with former US President Donald Trump.
Ellison supported Trump’s policies and appeared with him at the White House, while Musk was once a close ally before their ties fractured earlier this year.
Oracle remains the bedrock of Ellison’s fortune, with its value buoyed by demand from artificial intelligence companies needing cloud services to power large-scale datacentres.
That demand has put Oracle in direct competition with Amazon and Microsoft in the fast-growing AI infrastructure race.
Musk, who reclaimed the “world’s richest” title last year after earlier ceding it to Bezos and luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, now faces his toughest challenge yet from his longtime friend and rival.
