For a short interval, from roughly half-hour to a couple hours on September 10, 2025, Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, briefly turned the richest individual on this planet, overtaking Elon Musk.
His huge fortune spike was the results of a record-breaking bounce in Oracle’s inventory, which gained almost 40% in a single day. However earlier than he may enjoy it, Musk managed to take back his crown. This illustrates how the race for the world’s richest title can change fingers in a single day.
Who Is Larry Ellison?
Larry Ellison is one in all Silicon Valley’s most enduring figures. He was born in 1944 in New York to a single mom, and he was raised by kinfolk in Chicago. He dropped out of school twice, ultimately transferring to California within the Sixties with little cash however huge ambitions.
In 1977, alongside Bob Miner and Ed Oates, Ellison co-founded Oracle, a software program firm that constructed database applications for companies. Oracle grew quickly in the course of the laptop growth of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, changing into one of the crucial vital tech firms on this planet.
Ellison served as CEO of Oracle till 2014, and he stays Oracle’s largest shareholder, proudly owning about 41% of the corporate. He additionally performed a key position in making Oracle a worldwide chief in enterprise software program, cloud providers, and now AI infrastructure.
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Ellison is known for his extravagant way of life. He owns a non-public island in Hawaii referred to as Lanai, the place he has invested in sustainable power and agriculture. He collects luxurious yachts, personal jets, and multimillion-dollar houses. He has additionally invested in different huge firms, together with Tesla and Salesforce, and as soon as served on Apple’s board of administrators.
Larry Ellison isn’t solely well-known for his tech empire and billionaire standing, however his private life has additionally drawn loads of consideration through the years. The Oracle co-founder has walked down the aisle a number of occasions. Actually, the 81-year-old mogul has been married six occasions.
Ellison’s first marriage was to Adda Quinn, lasting from 1967 to 1974, lengthy earlier than he constructed his Oracle fortune. The seven-year union was affected by monetary struggles, which finally led to their divorce. His second marriage got here in 1977, when he wed Nancy Wheeler Jenkins. That relationship was short-lived, ending only a yr later in 1978.
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In 1983, Ellison married Barbara Boothe, a receptionist at one in all his firms. Collectively, that they had two kids: David and Megan Ellison, and the wedding led to 1986. His most publicised marriage was his fourth. He bought married to romance novelist Melanie Craft. They bought married in 2003, and the wedding lasted seven years earlier than ending in 2010.
Ellison later married Ukrainian mannequin, actress, and animal rights activist Nikita Kahn in 2010. He liked her a lot that he named a luxurious restaurant in Malibu after her. Nonetheless, the couple separated in 2016, finalising their divorce in Might 2020. Ellison’s present spouse is Jolin Zhu, whom he’s believed to have married in 2023.
How Ellison Surpassed Elon Musk
On Tuesday night, September ninth, Oracle introduced stronger-than-expected earnings and a optimistic forecast, because of rising demand for AI infrastructure providers, and the response was historic.
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Oracle’s inventory jumped by almost 40%, its greatest single-day rise since 1992.
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The corporate’s market worth elevated by $244 billion, pushing it near the $1 trillion mark.
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Oracle’s rating on the S&P 500 index climbed from thirteenth to tenth place, overtaking main firms like Walmart and JPMorgan Chase.
As a result of Ellison owns round 1.16 billion shares of Oracle, his wealth skyrocketed:
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His internet price elevated by greater than $100 billion in someday, the most important single-day wealth acquire ever recorded by Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
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At one level, Ellison’s fortune hit $393 billion, surpassing Musk’s $385 billion.
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So, for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning, Larry Ellison was formally the richest man alive.
How Musk Took Again the Title
Elon Musk, who has largely dominated the highest of the wealthy record since 2021, didn’t keep in second place for lengthy. By the top of Wednesday’s buying and selling session, Tesla’s inventory worth had lifted Musk’s fortune again up, and as of immediately, September eleventh, Elon is price $435.6 billion. Musk has seen his place challenged earlier than:
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In 2021, Bernard Arnault, the French luxurious tycoon behind LVMH, briefly overtook him.
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In 2024, Jeff Bezos, founding father of Amazon, additionally claimed the highest spot for a brief interval.
But, every time, Musk has reclaimed his crown. Whereas Ellison represents the primary technology of Silicon Valley billionaires, who constructed the muse of recent enterprise expertise, Musk represents the brand new wave, pioneering electrical vehicles, rockets, and AI.
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