By Obinna Uballa
Elon Musk has lost his long-held crown as the world’s richest person to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, following a record-breaking surge in Ellison’s net worth.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Ellison’s fortune jumped by an unprecedented $101 billion on Tuesday night to reach $393 billion, surpassing Musk’s $385 billion. The windfall came after Oracle reported stunning quarterly results that sent its stock soaring 40% by mid-morning Wednesday.
Oracle said demand for its data centre capacity from artificial intelligence companies is driving the boom, reports said.
CEO Safra Catz revealed the firm signed four multibillion-dollar contracts during the quarter, with more expected to come soon. Oracle also struck a major deal in July to supply OpenAI with 4.5 gigawatts of electricity to power its AI software.
The rally marks the single biggest one-day increase in wealth ever recorded by Bloomberg’s index. Oracle’s stock, already up 103% this year, now carries a market value just shy of $700 billion.
Ellison, 81, is Oracle’s largest individual shareholder. His rise reflects the broader AI-driven tech surge that has also propelled Nvidia past a $4 trillion valuation and briefly lifted Microsoft above that milestone.
Musk, who first became the world’s richest man in 2021 thanks to Tesla and SpaceX, has occasionally lost the title, once to LVMH chief Bernard Arnault in 2021 and again to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2024.
Despite controversies and setbacks, he has largely retained the top spot and recently secured a pay package that could eventually be worth nearly $1 trillion if Tesla hits key milestones.
Ellison, who co-founded Oracle in 1977 after dropping out of college, is known for his lavish lifestyle. He owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lana’i, revitalised the Indian Wells tennis tournament in California, and has maintained close ties with U.S. political leaders.
With the AI boom reshaping the global economy, analysts say Ellison’s leap underscores how the next generation of wealth creation is being defined by the race to build the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence.
