Elon Musk has been unseated as the world’s richest person after Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison saw his fortune surge to $393 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Ellison’s wealth jumped by a record $101 billion in one day, eclipsing Musk’s $385 billion, after Oracle shares soared 40% on the back of blowout earnings. The company credited booming demand for data centres from artificial intelligence firms, with CEO Safra Catz revealing four multibillion-dollar deals in the past quarter and a landmark 4.5-gigawatt agreement with OpenAI in July.
The stock rally has doubled Oracle’s value this year to nearly $700 billion, cementing its place among the world’s most valuable companies. At 81, Ellison remains Oracle’s largest shareholder and has become the face of a broader AI-fuelled wealth wave that also pushed Nvidia above a $4 trillion valuation and briefly lifted Microsoft past that mark.
Musk, whose fortune is tied to Tesla and SpaceX, first claimed the top spot in 2021 but has seen his ranking fluctuate, previously ceding it to Bernard Arnault and Jeff Bezos. Analysts say a new Tesla pay package could eventually push his net worth close to $1 trillion.
Ellison, who co-founded Oracle in 1977 after dropping out of college, is known for bold bets and lavish pursuits. He owns most of Hawaii’s Lana’i island, revitalised the Indian Wells tennis tournament, and maintains close ties in Washington.
His rise underscores a shift: the biggest fortunes of the future are being built not on cars or rockets, but on the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence.
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