Oracle’s Larry Ellison overtakes Mark Zuckerberg as world’s second-richest person on AI boom

NEW YORK – Mr Larry Ellison is the world’s second-wealthiest person for the first time ever, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as a red-hot rally in Oracle’s share price has catapulted his net worth to US$251.2 billion (S$322.8 billion).

Mr Ellison co-founded Oracle, which has been a key winner as investors have piled into artificial intelligence stocks. The company’s shares have nearly tripled since ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, but it has been on a particular tear over the past three months, with the stock gaining more than 90 per cent since late April as the computing provider recorded surging revenues and inked key partnerships.

Oracle’s shares rose another 5.7 per cent on July 15 on news that the US government would allow chipmakers including Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to export some semiconductors to China, reversing Biden-era restrictions.

That pushed Mr Ellison, 80, ahead of Mr Mark Zuckerberg on Bloomberg’s wealth index. More than 80 per cent of Mr Ellison’s wealth is in the form of Oracle stock and options.

In the past few months alone, Oracle has tallied tens of billions of dollars in cloud computing contracts and announced it is developing gigawatts of data centre power to serve enterprise clients including OpenAI, which rented a massive amount of additional capacity earlier in July as part of the companies’ Stargate initiative with SoftBank Group. 

Its revenue last quarter blew by estimates, with chief executive Safra Catz saying that “FY26 will be even better”.

Mr Ellison is planning new ways to leverage his soaring wealth. On July 15, he announced in a post on X that he would be amending his support for the Giving Pledge to concentrate more of his resources on the Ellison Institute of Technology, an interdisciplinary technical institute that is partnered with the University of Oxford. The institute, which was founded in 2023, focuses on innovating in diverse fields including health, agriculture, clean energy and artificial intelligence.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s wealth has also been boosted by a recent run-up in his company’s stock: Mr Huang overtook Mr Warren Buffett to move into ninth place on Bloomberg’s rich list for the first time on July 11, where he has remained since. Nearly all of Mr Huang’s wealth is in Nvidia equity, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Mr Elon Musk is still the world’s richest person, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, with a net worth of US$357.8 billion. BLOOMBERG