Ellison rivals Musk as world’s richest man with US$70 billion gain

[NEW YORK] Larry Ellison is closing in on Elon Musk for the title of the world’s richest person.

His fortune soared US$70 billion after Oracle reported quarterly results after market close on Tuesday (Sep 9) in New York that surpassed expectations and said there’s more growth to come.

The increase lifted his total fortune to US$364 billion, within striking distance of Musk who sits at US$384 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. If Ellison’s gain remains when trading begins on Wednesday, it will be the biggest one-day increase ever recorded by the index.

Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time in 2021 before losing the title to Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. He reclaimed it last year and has now held it for just over 300 days.

Ellison, 81, who co-founded Oracle and is now chairman and chief technology officer, has the bulk of his net worth tied up in the database software company.

Oracle’s shares, which had already gained 45 per cent this year through Tuesday’s close, soared more than 26 per cent in extended trading after the company posted a major increase in bookings and gave an aggressive outlook for its cloud infrastructure business. It was the company’s largest single-day surge since 1999.

Shares of Musk’s Tesla, by contrast, are down 14 per cent this year. BLOOMBERG