Larry Ellison Crosses Elon Musk, Becomes World’s Richest Man by Earning ₹8.5 Lakh Crore in a Day
Larry Ellison Crosses Elon Musk, Becomes World’s Richest Man by Earning ₹8.5 Lakh Crore in a Day
“When people start telling you that you’re crazy, you just might be on to the most important innovation in your life,” Larry Ellison said back in 2016. Nearly a decade later, those words ring true. At 81, the Oracle cofounder now holds the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, overtaking Elon Musk to become the richest man on Earth with a fortune of $393 billion. His wealth surged by $101 billion in a single night after Oracle’s stock jumped on the back of record-breaking AI-driven cloud contracts.
The Rise of Oracle in the AI Cloud Era
Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977, then called Software Development Laboratories. Just two years later, the company launched Oracle Version 2, the first commercially available SQL-based database. This breakthrough made Oracle the global leader in enterprise database technology through the 1980s and 1990s.
Under Ellison’s leadership, Oracle went public in 1986 and grew rapidly, acquiring PeopleSoft in 2005, Sun Microsystems in 2010, and NetSuite in 2016. These moves expanded Oracle’s reach from databases into enterprise applications, hardware, and cloud computing, cementing its place as a software powerhouse.
In recent years, Oracle has doubled down on artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure. Ellison, now CTO and executive chairman, spearheaded Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), optimized for AI workloads. In 2025, Oracle announced the $500 billion “Stargate” project, aimed at building global AI infrastructure and platforms for industries ranging from healthcare to finance. The launch of Oracle’s AI Database, which integrates enterprise data with large language models, has further strengthened its market dominance. Oracle’s stock has doubled this year alone, driving Ellison’s historic wealth gain.
Overtaking Musk and Other Billionaires
Ellison’s $393 billion net worth pushed him past Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose wealth dropped to $385 billion following a 13% slide in Tesla’s shares and declining U.S. market share. He also overtook Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who briefly held the No. 2 spot. Musk, who first claimed the “richest man” title in 2021 and reclaimed it in 2024, lost it again after nearly 300 days at the top. For Ellison, this is the first time he has reached No. 1 in the global wealth rankings.
