Elon Musk, the billionaire, might soon lose his title as the world’s wealthiest person to Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, who is set to gain significantly from the AI boom.
Ellison, at 81, saw his wealth increase by over $100 billion on Wednesday, thanks to Oracle’s shares soaring after the company, nearly 50 years old, projected significant revenue growth amid the AI investment surge.
This increase boosted Ellison’s net worth to approximately $406 billion, compared to Musk’s estimated $440 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire index.
Bloomberg’s wealth index, however, put Ellison slightly ahead of Musk, naming him the top billionaire temporarily. These discrepancies arise from different methods of estimating their substantial holdings.
Musk’s most straightforward asset to estimate is Tesla, whose stock has declined in 2025 due to sluggish sales partly linked to Musk’s association with far-right political figures.
Elon Musk. — AFP file
Earlier this month, Tesla proposed a compensation package for Musk that could exceed $1 trillion by 2035 if the company meets ambitious goals. Shareholders will vote on this in November.
Ellison, a longtime Donald Trump supporter, owns over 1.1 billion Oracle shares, representing more than 40% of the company, per S&P Capital IQ.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz described the recently completed quarter as “astonishing,” noting the signing of “four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers.”
Oracle expects its cloud business revenues to increase by 77% this fiscal year to $18 billion, with future projections of $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion.
By 1630 GMT, Oracle shares had risen about 40% to $338.00, giving the company a market value of roughly $950 billion.
