Larry Ellison Becomes World’s Second-Richest Person as Oracle Shares Soar

Oracle's stock surged to an all-time high on Thursday, propelling co-founder Larry Ellison into the No. 2 spot on the Forbes billionaire index. The sharp rally added at least $26 billion to Ellison's net worth, pushing it to an estimated $243 billion and allowing him to overtake Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg's current net worth is around $239 billion, just ahead of Bezos at $227 billion. However, all three tech titans remain far behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose net worth exceeds $400 billion.

The fortunes of these billionaires are closely tied to the performance of their companies’ stock, with Ellison holding a 41% stake in Oracle. While he stepped down as CEO in 2014, Ellison continues to serve as Oracle’s chief technology officer and board chairman.

Oracle's stock jumped 13% on Thursday, hitting a record high above $202 after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts responded positively to the results, praising the company’s impressive growth outlook and raising their price targets for the stock.