Ellison, 81, owns 41% – about 1.16 billion shares – of the software giant he co-founded in 1977. Oracle's market value rocketed after it stunned investors with forecasts of $144 billion revenue by 2030, fueled by an AI-driven cloud computing boom.
His wealth has surged at a time when Musk’s crown jewel, Tesla, is under mounting pressure. The electric carmaker has faced declining demand, fueled in part by consumer pushback against Musk’s political ties to president Donald Trump.
Since December, Tesla’s stock has dropped roughly 25%. Musk still holds around 16% of the automaker, a stake currently valued at close to $187 billion.
Oracle’s growing influence in AI has allowed it to benefit from the same market rally that catapulted Nvidia to the top of the corporate world, giving the chipmaker a valuation of more than $4 trillion.
Its massive projected revenue represents a giant leap from forecasts of $18 billion for the current fiscal year, and came after what chief executive Safra Catz called an “astonishing” quarter.
Musk first became the world’s richest person in 2021, a position he has mostly maintained thanks to his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. He briefly slipped from the top spot twice – once to LVMH chief Bernard Arnault in 2021, and again to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2024.
Nonetheless, Musk has managed to hold on to his lead for much of that time. Tesla even approved a new compensation plan for him that could eventually be worth nearly $1 trillion if the company meets its performance goals.
Ellison, like Musk, also has ties with Trump and has appeared with the president at investment events this year . At one point, he was floated as a potential buyer of TikTok, though the deal never materialized.
He also owns almost the entire Hawaiian island of Lana’i, and is credited with a major role in transforming the Indian Wells tennis tournament in California into what many call a “fifth Grand Slam.”
