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New World’s Richest Person: Larry Ellison Surpasses Elon Musk
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- Oracle’s skyrocketing stock price, driven by massive AI‑related cloud deals, has boosted Ellison’s wealth beyond Musk’s according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
- Forbes values Ellison’s net worth at $401 billion, while Bloomberg’s estimation stands at $393 billion.
- This wealth milestone reflects the explosive demand for AI infrastructure, marking a pivotal shift in the tech billionaire hierarchy.
Larry Ellison, the Oracle co‑founder, has claimed the top spot among global billionaires thanks to Oracle’s spectacular AI‑powered surge.
A single day of trading pushed Oracle’s shares up by over 40%, yielding the largest single‑day billionaire wealth jump ever recorded. Ellison’s net worth now sits at between $393 and $401 billion, depending on who’s doing the tallying.
According to Forbes’ calculations, here’s how Ellison’s net worth has changed over time. (The 2025 figure is as of September 10th.)
| Year | Larry Ellison Net Worth (in billions, USD) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $401 |
| 2024 | $141 |
| 2023 | $107 |
| 2022 | $106 |
| 2021 | $93 |
| 2020 | $59 |
| 2019 | $63 |
| 2018 | $59 |
| 2017 | $52 |
| 2016 | $44 |
What Sparked Oracle’s Dramatic Jump?
Oracle’s stock lift was underpinned by a powerful combination of AI‑driven momentum and blockbuster cloud contracts. The firm signed four multibillion‑dollar deals, with remaining performance obligations (RPO) surging to $455 billion. CEO Safra Catz announced that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue is now projected to hit $144 billion within five years, up from a prior forecast of $18 billion.
AI demand is at the center of this rally, as businesses scramble for infrastructure capacity. Oracle’s multi‑cloud alliances with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft further amplified investor confidence.
Ranking Billionaires Isn’t Easy
While Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index currently ranks Larry Ellison as #1, Forbes still places Elon Musk at the top. This divergence comes down to methodology and valuation timing.
Forbes publishes both a real-time list and an annual billionaire ranking. Their real-time tracker updates throughout the day based on public stock prices but also includes private company valuations that are updated less frequently. For instance, Forbes attributes more value to SpaceX, one of Musk’s private companies, which they estimate at around $180 billion—heavily influencing his net worth. Bloomberg, meanwhile, assigns a more conservative value to SpaceX, which allowed Ellison’s Oracle-powered surge to overtake Musk in their model.
These differences highlight just how fluid billionaire rankings can be, especially when fortunes are so tightly tied to volatile tech stocks and private asset estimations.
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