Elon Musk has ceded his position as the world’s wealthiest individual to Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and a known supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ellison’s net worth reportedly climbed to $393 billion Wednesday morning, surpassing Musk’s estimated $385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Oracle shares experienced a surge of over 40% following the database software corporation’s surprisingly optimistic forecast for its cloud infrastructure business and artificial intelligence (AI) ventures.
Ellison, whose personal wealth is intrinsically linked to the company’s performance, has accumulated his fortune steadily over the last five decades.
Musk had previously held the title of world’s richest person for nearly a year. He could potentially receive a compensation package valued at over $1 trillion if he achieves a series of ambitious goals within the next decade, as proposed by the electric car manufacturer’s board.
However, shares of Tesla, Musk’s most valuable enterprise, have experienced a decline this year.
The electric vehicle company has faced investor apprehension regarding the Trump administration’s rollback of electric vehicle initiatives, in addition to consumer concerns related to Musk’s political engagement.
Oracle’s recent growth has been fueled by increasing demand for data center infrastructure.
The company projected in its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday that revenue from its cloud business is expected to increase by 77% this year, reaching $18 billion, with further growth anticipated in subsequent years.
Oracle has reported a significant surge in demand among AI companies for its data centers, contributing to a substantial increase in its stock value.
During the last quarter, it secured four multi-billion-dollar contracts with clients and anticipates additional deals in the coming months, according to Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz on Tuesday.
Ellison, 81, was instrumental in founding Oracle in 1977 and gained prominence in the 1990s, becoming a public figure known for his opulent lifestyle and the database company underpinning his wealth.
He served as Oracle’s CEO until 2014 and currently holds the positions of chairman and chief technology officer.
Ellison has also cultivated a close relationship with former President Trump.
During Trump’s return to the White House in January, Ellison joined OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to announce the Stargate project, aimed at developing AI infrastructure within the United States.
Oracle has also emerged as a potential acquirer of TikTok, the app owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. TikTok faces a potential ban in the U.S. unless it divests itself of ByteDance ownership.
In January, when questioned about whether he would consider Musk buying TikTok, Trump responded: “I’d like Larry to buy it, too.”
Ellison’s media ambitions extend beyond TikTok.
He financed the majority of an $8 billion bid by his son to acquire Paramount, which owns CBS and MTV.
The deal between Paramount and the media company Skydance, controlled by his son David, was finalized last month.
Google’s AI overviews are diverting traffic away from online newspapers and other publications.
Anthropic’s deal with authors would constitute the largest public copyright recovery in history, lawyers say.
The car firm boss’s enormous pay package depends on him hitting sky-high targets.
The first lady has taken a different – and selective – approach to her duties in the White House.
Independent councillor Grace Lewis says Palantir has attracted “significant concern”.