Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Larry Ellison has overtaken Bernard Arnault to become the world's fourth-richest person with a $181 billion fortune.
Oracle's cofounder and technology chief leapfrogged LVMH's founder and CEO on Monday, as a 5% rise in his software company's stock fueled a $7 billion increase in his net worth.
Ellison, who is 80 years old, started the year in eighth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has soared by $57.8 billion since then, making him the third-biggest wealth gainer after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, up $61.4 billion, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, up $58.5 billion.
He's surpassed Google's Larry Page, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and now Arnault in wealth this year.
The tech veteran only trails Elon Musk, worth $248 billion, Jeff Bezos ($208 billion) and Zuckerberg ($189 billion) on Bloomberg's rich list. Forbes ranks him as the world's second-wealthiest person with a $207 billion fortune, second only to Musk's $251 billion.
Ellison's net worth has ballooned by 125% in just over two years, from about $80 billion in mid-October 2022 to $181 billion at Monday's close.
The main driver has been Ellison's roughly 40% stake in Oracle, as the stock has more than doubled from under $70 to a record $170 in that period, rising 62% this year alone.
The surge in Oracle stock reflects investors' excitement about the database specialist's key role in the AI boom. Last week, Oracle's quarterly report showed adjusted earnings per share jumped 18% year-over-year in the three months through August. Its contract backlog also swelled by 53% to a record $99 billion as AI companies lined up to use its cloud data centers and services.
Ellison— who was Oracle CEO from 1977 to 2014 — also owns about 1.4% of Tesla, a stake worth about $10 billion. He bought the shares in Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company prior to joining its board in 2018, and retained them after stepping down in 2022.
