Ellison tops Musk as world’s richest man after US$101 billion gain

Ellison, who co-founded Oracle, has the bulk of his net worth tied up in the database software company

Larry Ellison has become the world’s richest person for the first time, ending Elon Musk’s nearly year-long reign in the top spot.

Ellison’s fortune soared US$101 billion as of 10.10 am in New York after Oracle reported quarterly results that surpassed expectations and said there’s more growth to come.

The increase lifted his total fortune to US$393 billion, ahead of Musk who sits at US$385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It’s the biggest one-day increase ever recorded by the index.

Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time in 2021 before losing the title to Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. He reclaimed it last year and had held it for just over 300 days.

Ellison, 81, who co-founded Oracle and is now chairman and chief technology officer, has the bulk of his net worth tied up in the database software company.

Oracle’s shares, which had already gained 45 per cent this year through Tuesday’s (Sep 9) close, soared 41 per cent on Wednesday after the company posted a major increase in bookings and gave an aggressive outlook for its cloud infrastructure business. It’s the company’s largest single-day surge ever.

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Shares of Tesla, by contrast, are down 13 per cent this year. The company’s board has proposed a massive pay package for Musk that, if he succeeds in meeting a series of ambitious targets, could make him the world’s first trillionaire. BLOOMBERG