What just happened? Oracle co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk as the world's richest person, at least according to one prominent source. The tech company shared its latest quarterly earnings report at the end of business on Tuesday. Results bested Wall Street expectations, sending share value skyrocketing in after-hours trading.
As of writing, Oracle's stock is up nearly 42 percent in AM trading on the day.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the stock jump pushed Ellison's fortune to $393 billion – enough to pass Musk, whose net worth currently sits at $385 billion. Bloomberg said it is the largest single-day increase the Billionaires Index has ever witnessed.
Musk's latest run at the top of the list lasted for just over 300 days. He first reached the summit in 2021 but was eventually passed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, who runs luxury goods company LVMH (think Louis Vuitton clothing, Dom Perignon champagne, and TAG Heuer watches).
Ellison, now 81, also serves as Oracle's chief technology officer. Most of his net worth is tied up in Oracle stock. Many investors would agree that it is not wise to put most or all of your eggs into one basket but occasionally, going against popular opinion works and that's where Ellison is right now. As of 2022, he was Oracle's largest stockholder at approximately 42.9 percent of common stock owned. Year to date, the company's share value is up nearly 105 percent.
For comparison, Musk is Tesla's largest single shareholder with an equity stake around 13-14 percent. Although up about 2.2 percent on the day as of writing, Tesla is down around 6.6 percent on the year. Musk's other big bet, SpaceX, is not a publicly traded company.
It's also worth noting that Oracle's market cap sits at $966.35 billion compared to $1.11 trillion for Tesla. Oracle is the fourth largest software company in the world based on market cap, trailing only Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet.
Image credit: Hartmann Studios, Accidental Nomad
