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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Elon Musk lost his title as world’s richest person - and then got it | |
back | |
By Jordan Valinsky, John Towfighi, CNN | |
Updated: | |
5:34 PM EDT, Wed September 10, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Elon Musk briefly lost his title of “world’s richest person” | |
title to Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison. | |
Ellison’s wealth jumped by $89 billion to $383.2 billion on Wednesday | |
after Oracle’s stunningly strong earnings report Tuesday evening, | |
according to . | |
Oracle () reported surging demand for its data center capacity from AI | |
customers, launching the stock into the stratosphere. Shares gained as | |
much as 43% before closing higher by about 36% on Wednesday; it was | |
the stock’s biggest single-day gain since 1992. | |
Ellison is Oracle’s largest individual shareholder. His gains in net | |
worth made him the world’s richest person for a few hours on | |
Wednesday, briefly surpassing Musk’s net worth. | |
But as of market close on Wednesday, Musk’s net worth was $384.2 | |
billion, beating out Ellison’s by $1 billion. | |
Oracle CEO Safra Catz announced Tuesday after the stock market closed | |
that the company signed four multibillion-dollar contracts with | |
customers during the quarter, and she expects to sign several more in | |
the coming months. | |
That electric forecast was powered by Oracle’s emergence as a key | |
provider of infrastructure that powers AI companies’ enormous demands | |
for computing power – Oracle’s bread and butter as a cloud services | |
and database software provider. In July, Oracle announced a deal to | |
provide ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI with to power its AI | |
software. | |
“We’ll be talking about this one for a long time,” said Ben | |
Reitzes, analyst at Melius Research, about Oracle’s earnings report | |
in a note to investors Wednesday. Reitzes called Oracle’s $455 | |
billion backlog in demand for its AI services “staggering.” | |
Ellison briefly captured the title of world’s richest person because | |
of the stock’s extraordinary gains. The stock’s jump is exceedingly | |
rare for a company that has a massive market value. | |
Oracle shares hit a record high on Wednesday. Oracle’s market value | |
gained roughly $244 billion, lifting it to roughly $922 billion. Oracle | |
on Wednesday jumped from being the 13th-most valuable company in the | |
S&P 500 to the 10th most-valuable, surpassing the market value of Eli | |
Lilly (), Walmart () and JPMorgan Chase (). | |
Ellison’s wealth rose as much as $101 billion before settling at a | |
gain of about $89 billion. Bloomberg notes Ellison’s leap in wealth | |
is the “biggest one-day increase ever recorded” recorded by the | |
index. | |
As Oracle has become a powerhouse in AI technology, it has ridden the | |
recent tech boom that has propelled Nvidia to become the , with a | |
valuation north of $4 trillion. Microsoft briefly joined Nvidia above | |
the $4 trillion mark. The eight most-valuable stocks in the S&P 500 are | |
all tech stocks with some stake in building the AI-powerd future. | |
“Microsoft and Oracle really aren’t software companies anymore - | |
they are AI cloud infrastructure stocks that happen to sell software | |
too,” said Reitzes. | |
As the AI boom accelerates, Oracle’s stock has risen 97% this year. | |
Analysts at Bank of America and Citi on Wednesday raised their price | |
targets for Oracle stock and upgraded it to “buy” from | |
“neutral.” | |
Meanwhile, Tesla shares () are down roughly 14% this year. | |
Musk first captured the title in 2021 and has largely held on to it for | |
the past few years thanks in part to his various investments in Tesla | |
and SpaceX. Over the years, Musk has briefly lost it twice, first in | |
2021 to and in 2024 to . | |
Nevertheless, Musk has prevailed despite his various and . He was even | |
give a new pay package that could be once Tesla hits certain | |
milestones. | |
For Ellison, his road to becoming one of the world’s richest people | |
traces back to 1977, when he dropped out of college and helped | |
establish Oracle. | |
The 81-year-old multibillionaire owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of | |
Lana’i and is credited for the Indian Wells tennis tournament in | |
California, earning it the nickname. | |
Ellison has close ties with President Donald Trump, often appearing | |
with him at the White House for various and rewarding Oracle contracts. | |
He’s also seen has a , although those plans have not come to | |
fruition. | |
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