US tech billionaire Larry Ellison briefly dethroned Elon Musk on Wednesday, September 10, to become the world’s richest person, before Musk reclaimed the top spot by Thursday morning.
Ellison’s surge came after shares in Oracle—the business software giant he co-founded and still owns a 41% stake in—skyrocketed by more than 40% in early trading, hitting $340 a share. The rally pushed Oracle’s valuation to $958bn (£707bn) and Ellison’s personal stake to $393bn, eclipsing Musk’s $384bn fortune, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The leap marked Oracle’s biggest single-day increase in history and the largest one-day wealth gain ever recorded on the Bloomberg index.
Ellison’s fortune extends beyond Oracle, with stakes in Tesla, where Musk serves as CEO, as well as ownership of a sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
The two billionaires share a long-standing friendship. Ellison served on Tesla’s board from 2018 to 2022 and invested $1bn in Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now rebranded as X. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, when asked how much he would contribute, Ellison reportedly replied he would put in $1bn or “whatever you recommend.” Musk has also been a regular guest on Ellison’s Hawaiian island.
Ellison, 81, is also a supporter of President Donald Trump and has appeared alongside him at several events, including the launch of the $500bn Stargate project to expand US artificial intelligence infrastructure. Musk, who backed Trump’s 2024 campaign, previously had close ties with the president before their relationship soured earlier this year.
Much of Ellison’s recent wealth surge has been driven by rising demand for Oracle’s cloud services, which power major AI firms such as ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
Musk, who leads Tesla and the aerospace firm SpaceX, first became the world’s richest person in 2021, later ceding the title to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault. He regained the crown last year, but just over 300 days later was briefly overtaken by Ellison.