Larry Ellison, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of US-based software giant Oracle, achieved the distinction of becoming the world's richest person on Wednesday, September 10. This milestone saw him surpass billionaire Elon Musk, driven by an unprecedented single-day net worth gain of $101 billion, as reported by Bloomberg. This monumental increase, recorded as of 10:10 am (EDT) in New York, followed Oracle's stellar quarterly results, which significantly exceeded market expectations. The surge propelled Ellison's net worth to an astounding $393 billion, eclipsing Elon Musk's $385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This $101 billion rise marks the largest single-day net worth increase ever documented by the index.

A substantial portion of Larry Ellison's wealth is intricately linked to the shares of Oracle, the software powerhouse he co-founded in 1977 and served as Chief Executive Officer until September 2014. Ellison's ascent to the world's richest person title comes after Elon Musk had held the position since 2021, a period during which Musk briefly lost the title to Amazon's Jeff Bezos and then to LVMH's Bernard Arnault. Musk had reclaimed his top spot in 2024, maintaining it for over 300 days until Ellison's dramatic surge on September 10.

Oracle's robust financial performance was a key catalyst in Ellison's net worth explosion. Oracle shares witnessed a remarkable jump of over 40%, reaching $338.53 during Tuesday's intraday trading session, a significant leap from its previous Wall Street close of $241.51. This surge was not only attributed to the positive quarterly results but also to the company's disclosure of a burgeoning demand for its cloud services, particularly from prominent artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Oracle CEO Safra Catz highlighted this trend, stating, “Over the next few months, we expect to sign up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

The increasing demand for Oracle's cloud services underscores a broader industry shift, with AI innovators like OpenAI and xAI fiercely competing to secure massive computing capacities essential for their advancements. While Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud collectively dominate the cloud computing market with an estimated 65% share, Oracle, alongside Alibaba and CoreWeave, commands a notable, albeit smaller, segment. The software major's shares have demonstrated exceptional long-term growth, appreciating by more than 492% over the last five years and over 116% in the past year on the New York Stock Exchange, reflecting its strong market position and future prospects.