New York, New York – Billionaire Elon Musk is at risk of losing his title as the world’s wealthiest person to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose software giant is poised for massive AI riches.
Ellison (81) amassed about $100 billion in additional wealth on Wednesday as Oracle shares skyrocketed after the nearly 50-year-old company forecast massive revenue growth amid the artificial intelligence investment boom.
That rise lifted Ellison’s overall fortune to about $395 billion compared with Musk’s roughly $440 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires index.
A Bloomberg wealth index placed Ellison’s bounty slightly ahead of Musk’s, designating the Oracle chief number one at the moment. The difference in the tallies relates to how some of their huge holdings are estimated.
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Ellison and Musk are close friends, with the Oracle boss often coming to Musk’s aid during challenging periods in the Tesla tycoon’s career.
He invested over $1 billion in Musk’s buyout of Twitter and served on Tesla’s board for many years.
Musk’s most easily estimated holding is Tesla, whose shares have fallen in 2025 amid languishing sales attributed partly to Musk’s embrace of far-right political figures.
Tesla earlier this month unveiled a compensation proposal for Musk that could top $1 trillion through 2035 if the company hits ambitious targets. Shareholders will vote on the plan in November.
Ellison, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, holds more than 1.1 billion shares of Oracle, accounting for more than 40% of equity, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Oracle projected that its cloud business revenues would grow 77% 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.
