How did Oracle Co-founder Larry Ellison beat Elon Musk to become the world's richest person?

On September 10, 2025, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison momentarily claimed the title of the world's richest person, thanks to a remarkable surge in Oracle's stock price that added approximately $101 billion to his wealth overnight. This significant increase was fueled by a more-than-40% rise in Oracle shares following the company's announcement of unexpectedly strong earnings and the unveiling of substantial multi-billion-dollar contracts related to its cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. This rally propelled Oracle's market capitalization close to $1 trillion, marking one of the largest single-day increases in the company's history. Ellison, who owns over 40% of Oracle's shares, saw this stock surge directly boost his personal fortune, briefly elevating him above Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Bloomberg's real-time billionaire rankings. Born in New York in 1944, Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977 and served as CEO for nearly 40 years before transitioning to the roles of executive chairman and chief technology officer in 2014. Under his guidance, Oracle established itself as a leader in enterprise software, particularly with its flagship database products, and made significant strides into cloud services. Ellison is also recognized for orchestrating major acquisitions, including PeopleSoft, Sun Microsystems, and NetSuite, which fortified Oracle's position in the enterprise IT sector. Despite Ellison's fleeting moment at the top, Musk quickly regained his status as the wealthiest individual by the end of the trading day, as Oracle's stock price began to decline from its peak. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk's net worth was approximately $384.2 billion, just ahead of Ellison's $383.2 billion. This incident highlights the volatility of wealth rankings, particularly for founders with substantial stakes in their companies.