Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk to become the world’s richest individual after shares in Oracle, the database software giant he co-founded, soared by more than 40 per cent on Wednesday.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ellison’s fortune rose by an unprecedented $101 billion in a single day, reaching $393 billion. Musk’s wealth, largely tied to Tesla, stood at $385 billion.
Ellison, 81, was born in 1944 to an unmarried mother and adopted by his aunt and uncle. He did not meet his biological mother until the age of 44. He studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and later at the University of Chicago, where he was first introduced to computer design, before moving to Berkeley, California, without completing his degree.
In 1977, Ellison co-founded Oracle in Santa Clara, California. The company went on to dominate the database software market and later expanded into cloud computing. As of last month, Oracle ranked as the world’s fourth-largest software company, behind Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet, with a market value approaching $700 billion.
During the 1990s, Ellison became as well known for his extravagant lifestyle as for his business success, with interests ranging from aviation and yachting to film production. Reports have detailed his purchase of the sixth-largest Hawaiian island, the construction of a $200 million Japanese-inspired estate near Palo Alto, and a string of high-profile relationships.
In recent years, Ellison has aligned himself with President Trump, appearing at the White House in January for the launch of “Stargate”, a project to build data centres for advanced computing. He also financed the majority of his son David’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, approved earlier this year by the Federal Communications Commission. The president has publicly suggested Ellison should consider acquiring TikTok.
Ellison has spoken of ambitions to integrate vast databases and deploy extensive surveillance systems, claiming such measures could help cure diseases and improve society. “I think this will make for a happier citizenry,” he told former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Ellison stepped down as Oracle’s chief executive in 2014 but remains chairman and chief technology officer. On Tuesday, the company reported quarterly revenue of $14.9 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations, but forecast a dramatic rise in cloud revenue to $144 billion by the 2030 financial year, driven by major contracts with companies including OpenAI, xAI and Meta.
Chief executive Safra Catz said Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue was expected to grow 77 per cent to $18 billion this year, before climbing to $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion and $144 billion over the following four years.
Oracle has invested heavily in data centres and secured large quantities of Nvidia’s sought-after graphics processing units, positioning itself to compete with Amazon and Alphabet. However, the company has also reduced staff numbers and reportedly discussed freezing pay rises and bonuses.
“It was an astonishing quarter and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build,” Catz said, adding that further multi-billion-dollar customer agreements were anticipated in the coming months.
