Larry Ellison is now the world richest person, not Elon Musk

NEW YORK: Wealth of Larry Ellison — the chairman of Oracle — jumped by $101 billion to $393 billion, which, according to Bloomberg, means he surpassed Elon Musk whose net worth is $385 billion.

The reason behind this surge is Oracle’s stunningly strong earnings report shared on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Ellison surpassed Musk at a time when the Tesla boss is trying to coping with reduced sales amid the strong competition with the Chinese EV makers.

And on Wednesday, early trading saw Oracle shares going up more than 35 per cent amid massive projected revenue growth based on contracts tied to artificial intelligence.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz called the just-finished quarter “astonishing” as the company signed “four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers.”

About 40 minutes into trading, shares were at $337.02, up nearly 40 per cent, lifting the company’s market valuation to around $950 billion.

Oracle’s rally also lifted the S&P 500, which rose 0.5 percent to 6,545.94, pushing the index further into record territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 percent to 45,659.71, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 percent to 21,950.81.

All three indices finished at records Tuesday as markets anticipate a likely Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week amid signs of a weakening US employment market.

Those expectations were reinforced by a surprise 0.1 per cent decline in the producer price index in August, according to government data. US consumer price data for the same period will be released Thursday.

AI-related investments have been a major driver of equity market strength in 2025.

77% GROWTH THIS FISCAL YEAR

Oracle projected that its cloud business revenues would grow 77 per cent in the current fiscal year to $18 billion. In subsequent years, revenues are expected to rise to $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion.

Catz said the company expects to sign “additional multi-billion-dollar” contracts in the coming months.

Oracle has emerged as a key provider of infrastructure — cloud services and database software.

Previously, Oracle announced in July a deal to provide OpenAI — parent company ChatGPT — with 4.5 gigawatts of electricity to power its AI software.