The trigger was a set of quarterly results and forecasts that impressed even bullish analysts: bookings surged, cloud growth far outpaced expectations, and management offered a vision that tied Oracle’s future firmly to artificial intelligence.
For Ellison, who owns around 1.16 billion Oracle shares, the math was staggering. A rise of more than $75 in the stock price translated into a one-day gain of roughly $70 billion, according to Bloomberg.That overnight leap lifted his net worth to $364 billion, putting him within striking distance of Elon Musk’s $384 billion.
Should the rally hold, Ellison would record the single-largest daily wealth increase ever tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — surpassing Musk’s own $63-billion surge last December.
The context makes the moment even sharper. Oracle’s shares had already climbed 45% this year before the latest spike, buoyed by steady momentum in its cloud business.
First quarter revenues came in at $14.9 billion, up 12% year-on-year, with cloud sales alone growing 28% to $7.2 billion. More telling was the scale of forward bookings: total remaining performance obligations swelled 359% to $455 billion, underlining demand for Oracle’s next-generation cloud offerings.Ellison sounded almost evangelical on the earnings call. “AI changes everything,” he declared, pointing to a 1,529% jump in multicloud database revenue from Amazon, Google and Microsoft. He also teased the launch of the ‘Oracle AI Database,’ which will allow customers to run large language models like Gemini, ChatGPT or Grok directly on Oracle’s systems.
Investors cheered. Jefferies swiftly raised its price target on Oracle to $360 from $270, maintaining a ‘buy’ call and noting that cloud growth and order backlogs signal a long runway ahead. The stock has now advanced more than 60% in six months.
Ellison’s surge comes as Musk’s main asset, Tesla, is down 14% this year, a reversal that sharpens the contest for the top spot in global wealth rankings.
Also Read: Oracle Financial shares end 10% higher after strong earnings and outlook from parent
Musk has held the crown for most of the past year, after wresting it from Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault. But at 81, Ellison is suddenly closer than ever.
The billionaire race has always been a spectacle. This time, Ellison’s staggering windfall suggests the title of ‘world’s richest’ may soon change hands again — with Oracle’s cloud ambitions at the heart of it.
Oracle shares rose to $319.24, up $77.73 (32.19%), in after hours trading.
