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Larry Ellison, the co-founder and chairman of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), has surpassed Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg to become the second-richest person in the world.
What Happened: Ellison’s net worth soared by $26 billion to $243 billion on Thursday, marking the largest daily increase among any billionaire. This surge propelled Ellison past Amazon‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN) chairman, Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $227 billion, and Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $239 billion, according to Forbes. He now stands second to Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
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The significant increase in Ellison’s wealth came after Oracle’s stock hit a record of over $200 per share, following a robust earnings report on Wednesday. The report revealed stronger-than-expected profits and sales for the company’s financial quarter ending in May.
Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick called the earnings update a “watershed” moment for Oracle, highlighting the significance of Ellison’s vision in ushering in a new era of cloud computing, especially as Oracle plays a key role in the advancement of AI technology.
TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood predicted that Oracle’s 2026 fiscal year, starting this month, would be a “major inflection point” for the company’s core cloud infrastructure service, driven by a surge in demand for AI training workloads.
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Why It Matters: Oracle’s recent financial success can be attributed to its strategic positioning in the global AI race. As highlighted in its fourth quarter earnings results, Oracle’s Chairman, Larry Ellison, emphasized the company’s competitive strength in its deep integration inside enterprise data architecture. This has allowed Oracle to compete successfully against other giants in this space.
Oracle’s stock gained after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and issued an upbeat outlook commentary. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $15.9 billion, up 11% compared to estimates of $15.58 billion, and adjusted earnings of $1.70 compared to estimates of $1.64. Oracle guided for total revenue of at least $67 billion in fiscal 2026. This record cloud growth has fueled Oracle’s AI ambitions.
