NEW YORK: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has overtaken Tesla chief Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person, following a record surge in Oracle’s share price fuelled by booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Ellison’s net worth rose by $101 billion in a single day to $393 billion after Oracle’s stock soared as much as 41 percent on Wednesday morning, according to Bloomberg.
Musk’s wealth stood at $385 billion, pushing him into second place after largely holding the title since 2021.
According to Bloomberg, Ellison’s wealth increase marked the largest single-day gain ever recorded in its index.
Oracle’s market value climbed to nearly $700 billion, an extraordinary jump for one of the world’s largest software and cloud companies.
The rally was driven by surging demand from AI firms for data centre capacity, Oracle’s core business.
The company reported four new multi-billion-dollar contracts during its fiscal first quarter, CEO Safra Catz announced late Tuesday. She added that further deals were expected in the coming months.
Oracle has positioned itself as a critical supplier of infrastructure to AI companies, including a deal announced in July to provide ChatGPT developer OpenAI with 4.5 gigawatts of electricity to power its software. “This was Oracle’s strongest-ever bookings quarter,” Catz told analysts.
Ellison, 81, is Oracle’s largest individual shareholder. His fortune has also benefited from the broader AI-fuelled rally in technology stocks that propelled Nvidia to a valuation of more than $4 trillion, briefly joined by Microsoft earlier this year.
Musk first became the world’s richest person in 2021 and has since oscillated between top and second place, competing with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.
His latest decline comes amid a difficult year for Tesla, whose shares have fallen 12 percent in 2025 on weaker sales and political headwinds.
Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977 after dropping out of college, also owns 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lana’i and is a prominent figure in US business and politics.
He has previously been linked to bids for TikTok and maintains close ties with US President Donald Trump.
Bloomberg said the Billionaires Index will update again at the market close on Wednesday, with Ellison expected to retain his lead if Oracle shares hold their gains.
