A remarkable surge in share price for the tech giant Oracle, has seen its co-founder Larry Ellison became the richest person in the world, displacing Elon Musk. 

The 81-year-old saw share value rise by an astonishing 40% overnight, lifting his personal wealth

to $393 billion with a staggering US$101 billion jump. It was enough to edge past Musk’s net worth believed to be around $385 billion, and according to the Bloomberg Index the leap is the “biggest one-day increase ever recorded”.

The huge surge in demand for Oracle’s data-center capacity from AI customers is behind the amazing turn of events, which was fuelled by the company’s announcement of a $450 billion-plus backlog for cloud services and multi-billion-dollar computing contracts with major AI players Nvidia and ChatGPT backer, OpenAI.

Indeed, it has ridden the recent tech boom that has propelled Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company, with a valuation in excess of $4 trillion and CEO Safra Catz has reported that Oracle has signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with customers during the last quarter, and she explained that they expect to sign several more in the coming months.

As the AI expansion accelerates, Oracle’s stock has risen 103% this year and the Ellison family are also pushing strongly into media and politics. Larry Ellison’s son, David, recently completed an $8 billion takeover of CBS and MTV owner Paramount Global. That transaction was funded in part by $6 billion from the Ellison family fortune.

The newly crowned richest man in the world is a major backer of President Donald Trump and recently visited the White House, announcing a massive data-center project with Softbank’s chief Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. That specific project will use Oracle technology in creating a $500 billion network.

At 81, it has been a long road to reaching the top spot for a man who dropped out of college in 1977 to help establish –  alongside Bob Miner and Ed Oates – Software Development Laboratories in Santa Clara, California. They were contracted by the CIA to build a database program code-named “Oracle”. In 2014 he stepped back to become the company’s executive chairman of the board and chief technology officer, both titles that he continues to hold to this day.

Ellison is also hugely into his sailing and it was his Oracle Team USA which came from behind to win and successfully defend the America’s Cup. In 2018 he co-founded SailGP, a high-speed catamaran racing league that competes around the world and has attracted celebrity backers. Most recently, actress Anne Hathaway and a consortium of investors acquired the Italy SailGP team and famous footballer Kylian Mbappé has invested in the France SailGP team.

Just for good measure, the richest man in the world also owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lana’i and he is credited for reviving the Indian Wells tennis tournament in California, which has been christened “fifth slam” by many tennis enthusiasts. 

For Elon Musk it will be a blow. He first captured the title in 2021 and has largely held on to it for the past few years thanks in part to his various investments in Tesla and SpaceX. He has lost it briefly a couple of times since – first to LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and then again last year to Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. 

He may not be too down-hearted though, as Tesla’s board has proposed a massive pay package for Musk which, if he succeeds in meeting a series of ambitious targets, could make him the world’s first “Trillionaire”, and that would take some catching!