Larry Ellison Surpasses Jeff Bezos to Become World's Second Richest Person

Oracle's Larry Ellison beats Zuckerberg, Arnault to become world's...

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison became the third richest person in the world on Tuesday with a net worth of $203.9 billion, according to Forbes, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault. Earlier on Tuesday, Ellison briefly beat out Amazon's Jeff Bezos before dipping back down to third. Bezos has a net worth of $206.4 billion, according to Forbes. He has held second position on and off since 2016. Ellison started the year as the eighth richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has skyrocketed more than 125% in just over two years, from about $80 billion in mid-October 2022 to $181 billion at Monday's close, according to Business Insider. His net worth increased by $22.9 billion Tuesday from $181 billion at Monday's close, according to Forbes. The 80-year-old billionaire owns nearly 40% of Oracle, a software company he founded in 1977 and led as CEO for nearly 40 years. He also owns about 15 million shares of Tesla, according to Forbes, which he bought prior to joining the company's board in 2018. He held onto the shares after stepping down from the board in 2022. So far this year, Ellison has gained enough wealth to overtake Google's Larry Page, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and now LVMH's Arnault and Meta's Zuckerberg. The only billionaires ahead of Ellison are Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of $255 billion, according to Forbes. Oracle shares have grown 7.9% over the past five days after the company last week raised its annual outlook and reported earnings that beat expectations. The stock is up a whopping 22.5% this month. Oracle has found success through its cloud applications and by jumping on the artificial intelligence train. During the company's earnings call last week, Ellison said Oracle is building data centers to accommodate the increasing demand for AI. "We are literally building the smallest, most portable, most affordable cloud data centers all the way up to 200-megawatt data centers, ideal for training very large language models and keeping them up to date," Ellison said on the call. Oracle announced last week it was partnering with Amazon's cloud computing unit, after revealing similar partnerships with Microsoft and Google.

Oracle's Larry Ellison is now the world's 4th-richest person after a $57 billion wealth surge this year

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. He's surpassed Google's Larry Page, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and now Arnault in wealth this year. The tech veteran only trails Elon Musk, worth $248 billion, Jeff Bezos ($208 billion) and Zuckerberg ($189 billion) on Bloomberg's rich list. Forbes ranks him as the world's second-wealthiest person with a $207 billion fortune, second only to Musk's $251 billion. Ellison's net worth has ballooned by 125% in just over two years, from about $80 billion in mid-October 2022 to $181 billion at Monday's close. The main driver has been Ellison's roughly 40% stake in Oracle, as the stock has more than doubled from under $70 to a record $170 in that period, rising 62% this year alone. The surge in Oracle stock reflects investors' excitement about the database specialist's key role in the AI boom. Last week, Oracle's quarterly report showed adjusted earnings per share jumped 18% year-over-year in the three months through August. Its contract backlog also swelled by 53% to a record $99 billion as AI companies lined up to use its cloud data centers and services. Ellison -- who was Oracle CEO from 1977 to 2014 -- also owns about 1.4% of Tesla, a stake worth about $10 billion. He bought the shares in Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company prior to joining its board in 2018, and retained them after stepping down in 2022.

Larry Ellison becomes world's second-richest man, dethroning Jeff Bezos as Oracle stock surges

Oracle shares surged more than 6% on Monday, continuing their recently rally and propelling chairman Larry Ellison to become the world's second-richest person, snatching the title from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Since the close of trading Friday, Ellison's net worth has jumped $11.7 billion to reach $209 billion, according to Forbes' real-time billionaires list. Bezos, who had been the second-richest person on and off since 2016, is worth $202 billion. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sits at the top of the list, with a net worth of $251 billion. Oracle's stock has climbed to new highs after the company reported earnings last week that surpassed expectations and boosted its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast. The stock surge caused Ellison to briefly pass Bezos as the world's second-richest person on Friday, before the Amazon founder reclaimed the title. Shares of Oracle are up 23% for the month. If the rally stops there, it would be their best month since October 2022, when the stock soared 28%, and the second-best month since roughly two decades ago in October 2002. Oracle's stock success is partly thanks to the company's role in the artificial intelligence boom. Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977, spoke on the company's earnings call last week about how the company is building data centers to accommodate the increasing demand for generative AI. "We are literally building the smallest, most portable, most affordable cloud data centers all the way up to 200-megawatt data centers, ideal for training very large language models and keeping them up-to-date," Ellison said on the call. Oracle said last week that it would partner with Amazon's cloud computing unit to enable its database services on dedicated hardware. Over the past year, it has struck similar partnerships with Microsoft and Google, the other two leading cloud infrastructure companies.

Oracle's Larry Ellison has dethroned Jeff Bezos as the world's second-richest person

The artificial intelligence boom has sent Oracle (ORCL) co-founder Larry Ellison's net worth past that of Jeff Bezos, making him the new second-richest person in the world. The Oracle chairman's real-time net worth soared to $206.1 billion on Monday, according to Forbes. Bezos is close behind at $203.1 billion. Meanwhile, Oracle's shares were up almost 5% during mid-day trading on Monday. The software giant's shares have climbed around 63.4% so far this year due to its cloud businesses. Ellison owns just under 40% of Oracle's outstanding stock, according to Forbes. The billionaire is ranked as the fifth-richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. After Oracle beat Wall Street's expectations with its first-quarter earnings results last week, the software company saw its shares jump 13% the day after, before closing at a record $157.10 on September 11. The company's total quarterly revenues in USD were up 7% from the previous year, while revenues were up 8% in constant currency, it said. In its cloud services division, Oracle's revenues in USD were up 12% year-over-year, while it was up 22% in constant currency. "As Cloud Services became Oracle's largest business, both our operating income and earnings per share growth accelerated," Oracle chief executive, Safra Catz, said in a statement. Ellison said the company has 162 cloud data centers, either in operation or under construction, around the world. The largest "is 800 megawatts and will contain acres of NVIDIA (NVDA) GPU Clusters for training large scale AI models," Ellison said. At an Oracle investor event last Thursday, Ellison said he and Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, were "begging" Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang for more GPUs, or graphics processing units, which power some of the world's most advanced large language models. "Please take our money. No, no take more of it. We need you to take more of our money. Please," Ellison said, Barrons reported. "It went okay. It worked."

Oracle rally: Larry Ellison briefly overtook Bezos to be world's second-richest person

Larry Ellison, Oracle's (NYSE:ORCL) co-founder and technology chief, briefly overtook Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos to be the world's second-richest person, after the software giant's shares saw their best week since late 2021. The stock gained 14.3% last week after Oracle's (ORCL) Q1 earnings topped expectations and its long-term targets impressed investors. The stock rally briefly lifted Ellison's net worth to $208.4B on Friday, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List, but it has since come down to $197.7B. Ellison, who owns an about 40% stake in Oracle (ORCL), is the company's biggest shareholder. Bezos' net worth stands at $204.4B, while Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk holds the richest person crown with a net worth of $252.8B. Oracle (ORCL) has been on a roll since its earnings report, and its multi-cloud strategy involving partnerships with Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) is expected to significantly bolster its market position. "We believe our cloud partnerships with AWS, Microsoft, and Google will turbocharge the growth of our database business for years to come," Ellison had said during Oracle's (ORCL) earnings call. More on Oracle Oracle Review: Becoming The Foundation Of AI Amazon: Oracle Partnership Highlights Margin Expansion Potential Oracle Post-Earnings: Multi-Cloud Strategy To Pay Off, Big Time - Upgrade To Buy Oracle lays out consistent double-digit growth on long-term AI, cloud trends