Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT / AFP / Getty Images
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has become the world's richest person, surpassing Tesla CEO Elon Musk. On Wednesday morning (September 10), Ellison's net worth soared to nearly $400 billion, driven by a significant surge in Oracle's stock, which rose more than 40%. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk's fortune currently stands at approximately $385 billion.
Ellison, who co-founded Oracle in the 1970s and serves as its chief technology officer and executive chairman, saw his wealth increase by $101 billion. This spike followed Oracle's announcement of quarterly results that exceeded expectations, alongside a positive forecast for future growth. The company has benefited from large infrastructure investments and its role as a cloud provider, with services highly sought after by AI companies since the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
Oracle's CEO, Safra Catz, revealed that the company recently secured several multi-billion-dollar contracts, expected to generate $455 billion in revenue. This growth has positioned Oracle among the leading cloud-computing companies, competing with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
Meanwhile, Tesla's stock has declined by 13% year-to-date, impacting Musk's wealth. However, there remains potential for Musk to regain the top spot. Tesla's board recently proposed a pay package that could make Musk the world's first trillionaire, provided he achieves ambitious goals, such as increasing the company's stock eightfold over the next decade.