Larry Ellison Overtakes Elon Musk as World’s Richest Man

US tech billionaire Larry Ellison has toppled Elon Musk to claim the crown as the world’s richest man.

The 81-year-old co-founder of Oracle saw his fortune soar on Tuesday, September 10, after Oracle’s shares recorded their biggest one-day jump in history. The company’s stock surged over 40% in early trading, hitting $340 per share and valuing the business software giant at nearly $958 billion.

Ellison, who holds a 41% stake in Oracle, now controls wealth estimated at $393 billion, edging past Musk, whose net worth stands at $384 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

The sudden spike didn’t just boost Oracle’s market value; it also marked the largest single-day wealth gain ever recorded on Bloomberg’s rich list.

While Oracle remains the backbone of his fortune, Ellison has other high-profile assets. He owns a stake in Tesla, a Hawaiian island, the Indian Wells tennis tournament, and even a sailing team. Interestingly, Musk and Ellison have long shared a close relationship. Ellison once served on Tesla’s board, invested $1 billion into Musk’s Twitter takeover, and has often been described as a mentor to the Tesla boss.

Musk himself is no stranger to the top spot. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO first became the world’s richest man in 2021, briefly losing it to Jeff Bezos and later Bernard Arnault, before reclaiming it last year. But less than a year later, he has now been displaced by Ellison.

Ellison’s wealth is being driven by the AI boom. Oracle’s cloud services, now in high demand from companies like OpenAI, have become a key backbone for artificial intelligence infrastructure, fueling both Oracle’s growth and Ellison’s resurgence to the top of the global rich list.