Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the world’s richest person on Wednesday, as Oracle’s stock surged due to enthusiasm around artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: The tight race between Musk and Ellison highlights the immense wealth generated by the tech industry and the growing importance of AI in driving stock valuations.
The details:
- Ellison’s net worth rose to nearly $400 billion at one point on Wednesday, surpassing Musk’s $383 billion fortune from Tuesday’s close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- Oracle’s shares have roughly doubled this year, leading to a remarkable increase in the company’s market value, which briefly surpassed $970 billion before ending the day at $922 billion.
- By the end of the day, Musk reclaimed the top spot, with a net worth of $384 billion, while Ellison’s fortune settled at $383 billion.
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos follow Musk and Ellison in the wealth rankings, with net worths of $264 billion and $252 billion, respectively.
Since the beginning of the year, Ellison’s position in Bloomberg’s ranking has seen a significant increase, with a $191 billion boost as of Wednesday’s close, while Musk has experienced a $48 billion decline.
What’s next: The race for the world’s richest person title may continue to fluctuate, depending on the performance of Oracle and Tesla shares in the coming days and weeks.
Recent from X
#LarryEllison has just become the richest man in the world. His wealth is off the charts, and so are his carbon emissions! Along with other carbon billionaires, he’s turbo-charging the climate crisis while everyone else is paying the price.
Check out the carbon pollution from… pic.twitter.com/kh3lB6c48Y
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) September 11, 2025
Larry Ellison of Oracle overtakes Elon Musk as worlds richest 💵
Ellison’s net worth soared $101B this morning taking his net worth to 393
Ahead of Musk who sits at $385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
@elonmusk$orcl https://t.co/tk6n22DqUo
— Susan Li (@SusanLiTV) September 10, 2025
In 2018 Larry Ellison bought 3 million shares ($1 billion investment at that time) of Tesla Stock.
If you are a long-term shareholder of $tsla, you know that these were the most painful, and arguably risky days to own the stock… yet that's when Ellison bought. pic.twitter.com/qdBauaBqZx
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) September 10, 2025
