Oracle chairman Larry Ellison is closing in on Elon Musk’s position as the world’s richest individual after a record one-day increase in his fortune.
Ellison’s wealth climbed by $70 billion to an estimated $364 billion following a strong rally in Oracle shares, placing him within $20 billion of Musk, whose net worth stands at about $384 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The surge represents the largest single-day gain ever captured by the wealth ranking.
The sharp rise followed Oracle’s latest quarterly earnings release, which showed robust bookings and a bullish outlook for its cloud infrastructure services.
Investors responded with a 26 percent jump in after-hours trading, the biggest rise in the stock since the late 1990s.
Oracle shares have already advanced more than 45 percent in 2025, underscoring growing confidence in its cloud strategy.
Ellison, 81, co-founded Oracle in 1977 and still holds the majority of his fortune in the company’s shares.
His wealth trajectory has accelerated in recent years as Oracle pushes deeper into enterprise cloud solutions, challenging incumbents such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Musk, meanwhile, has seen his fortune pressured by a 14 percent decline in Tesla stock this year. Though he has held the top spot for more than 300 days, Ellison’s gains highlight the shifting dynamics at the very top of the global billionaire rankings.
Market analysts suggest Oracle’s performance could keep narrowing the gap, potentially putting Ellison in contention to claim the number one spot for the first time.
