Oracle's stock rally brings Larry Ellison to the threshold of passing Elon Musk as the world's richest individual
Oracle’s stock surged more than 32 percent after unveiling an ambitious AI cloud forecast, boosting co-founder Larry Ellison’s fortune by nearly $88 billion in a single day. Ellison, now worth about $364 billion, is closing in on Elon Musk’s position as the world’s richest person.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is poised to pass Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the world's richest individual after Oracle's stock rose sharply in premarket trading on Wednesday on the back of a bold prediction for its artificial intelligence–driven cloud business.
Oracle stock rose over 32 percent after the company estimated that AI-powered cloud revenue would hit $144 billion in fiscal year 2030, compared to less than $20 billion this year, as per Yahoo Finance. If the rally holds, Ellison’s stake of roughly 1.16 billion Oracle shares would increase in value by nearly $88 billion in a single day, Axios reported.
Ellison, 81, is currently Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer. His wealth increased by around $70 billion with the firm's latest earnings report, taking his overall fortune to around $364 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk remains slightly ahead with an estimated fortune of $384 billion.
The sharp rise in Oracle’s market value comes during a period of restructuring. The company has laid off thousands of employees in recent months and reportedly weighed cutting bonuses and salary increases, Yahoo Finance reported. Despite these challenges, Oracle is betting heavily on AI and cloud infrastructure.
Oracle has secured multibillion-dollar contracts with leading AI firms, including OpenAI and Meta, creating a backlog of $455 billion in commitments.The firm will extensively grow its global data center footprint, with capital spending likely to hit $35 billion in 2026.
"Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue is expected to grow 77 percent to $18 billion this fiscal year — and then grow to $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion over the next four years," Oracle CEO Safra Catz stated in a statement cited by Yahoo Finance.
While Oracle narrowly failed to meet Wall Street's quarterly earnings forecasts, analysts and investors are optimistic about its long-term plan based on the firm's aggressive move into AI and cloud services.