Larry Ellison overtakes Musk: How Oracle’s AI boom made him the world’s richest person

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s 81-year-old co-founder and chair, just experienced one of the biggest single-day wealth jumps in history. His net worth swelled by more than $100 billion after Oracle posted blockbuster earnings, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

The surge lifted Ellison’s total fortune to around $393 billion, edging him past Elon Musk’s $385 billion. The jump reflects both Oracle’s soaring stock price and Ellison’s massive stake in the company — more than 1.1 billion shares, or about 41 percent of Oracle’s equity.

Oracle’s AI transformation

Oracle, long known as a database giant, has reinvented itself as a backbone provider for the artificial intelligence era. The company reported $14.9 billion in quarterly revenue, up 12% year-on-year, with its cloud infrastructure business growing 55%.

But the real headline was in Oracle’s future bookings. The company announced $455 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO) — essentially contracts for future revenue. That’s a 359% increase compared with last year. CEO Safra Catz called it “an astonishing quarter” and projected cloud revenues will climb to $18 billion this year, with long-term growth that could hit $144 billion annually by 2030.

The AI gold rush: who Oracle is powering

Oracle has positioned itself as a key provider of the massive computing power required to train and run AI systems. Recent deals include contracts with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, AMD, ByteDance, and even xAI — Musk’s own AI startup.

With OpenAI alone requiring gigawatts of computing capacity, Oracle’s role as an infrastructure supplier makes it a crucial player in the AI boom. Analysts say this puts Oracle in direct competition with cloud leaders Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — but also makes it one of the most attractive long-term bets in the AI supply chain.

Musk under pressure as Tesla falters

While Ellison’s wealth has soared, Musk’s grip on the world’s richest title has weakened in 2025. Tesla shares have fallen about 14% year-to-date, amid slowing electric vehicle demand and growing competition. Musk’s public embrace of far-right political figures has also unsettled some investors.

Tesla has proposed a new $1 trillion compensation package for Musk, contingent on ambitious performance targets through 2035, but shareholder approval is still pending. For now, the billionaire’s net worth has dipped, leaving him vulnerable to Ellison’s surge.

Why AI infrastructure is the real prize

Ellison’s record-breaking gain highlights a shift in the tech wealth story. While much of the public spotlight has been on AI applications like chatbots and autonomous systems, the real money is flowing into infrastructure — the data centres, chips, and cloud platforms powering those tools.

Oracle’s rise suggests that being the “picks and shovels” provider in the AI gold rush may be more lucrative than creating the applications themselves. For Ellison, it has translated into the biggest one-day gain ever recorded in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index — and, at least for now, the crown of world’s richest person.