Billionaire Elon Musk may soon lose his spot as the world’s wealthiest man to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose company has surged on massive artificial intelligence gains.
Ellison, 81, added nearly $100 billion to his fortune on Wednesday as Oracle’s shares soared following a forecast of huge revenue growth tied to the AI investment wave. The rally boosted his net worth to about $395 billion, close to Musk’s $440 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire index.
Bloomberg’s wealth index, however, briefly placed Ellison ahead of Musk, underscoring how valuations differ based on their holdings.
Ellison and Musk are longtime allies, with the Oracle founder investing over $1 billion in Musk’s Twitter takeover and previously serving on Tesla’s board.
But while Ellison’s fortune has ballooned thanks to Oracle’s booming AI cloud contracts, Musk’s wealth has been pressured by Tesla’s sliding stock, partly linked to sluggish sales and his political controversies.
Tesla has proposed a new pay package that could top $1 trillion if Musk meets aggressive goals by 2035, with shareholders set to vote in November.
Oracle, meanwhile, announced cloud revenues are set to grow 77 percent this fiscal year to $18 billion and projected steady increases reaching as high as $144 billion in coming years. Deals with OpenAI and other AI leaders have positioned Oracle as a central player in building large-scale data centers for AI model training.
Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977, now controls more than 40 percent of the company’s stock, valued at around $920 billion as of Wednesday.
What you should know
Larry Ellison, a close ally of Elon Musk, has seen his fortune skyrocket due to Oracle’s booming AI business, putting him within striking distance of overtaking Musk as the world’s richest person.
The shift underscores how artificial intelligence is reshaping wealth and corporate power at the highest levels.
