Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, briefly became the world’s richest person on Wednesday, overtaking Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Though as a function of the share market volatility, Musk regained the top spot by the end of the market close, the jump in Ellison’s wealth surely makes a case for some interesting analysis, at a time when a host of Indian tech companies are looking at potential buyback. He has been buying back shares steadily since 2011 and his current stake is up to 41% as he retained most of the stock.
Ellison’s wealth jumped after the share price of tech giant Oracle surged more than 35% to $328 per share, marking the company’s best single-day performance since 1992. The stock surge led to an unprecedented $101 billion personal gain for Ellison, the largest single-day gain recorded in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. This is because he owns 41% stake in the company.
Ellison’s 41% Oracle stake: Massive stock buyback since 2011
According to Forbes, Ellison hasn’t always been able to fully capitalize on Oracle’s growth. Fifteen years ago, he held only a 22% stake in the company. Since 2011, Oracle has spent around $142–155 billion on stock buybacks, which nearly doubled Ellison’s ownership stake to 41% today. Ellison retained most of his shares during these buybacks, increasing his relative ownership without selling. As a result, when the Oracle shares surged, his personal wealth also shot up.
Oracle shares fuel Ellison’s wealth surge
Oracle’s shares surged more than 40% in early US trading, valuing the company at about $960 billion. At that point, Ellison’s stake was worth $393 billion, pushing him ahead of Musk’s $384 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
However, the surge in the stock price cooled off by the end of the day. Oracle ended the session up 36% at $328 per share, reducing the value of Ellison’s holdings to $378 billion. That’s how Musk regained the top spot by end of trade.
Why did the Oracle shares surge
The Oracle shares rallied in US trade on the back of a host of reasons.In Q1FY26, the company reported $455 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPOs), marking a massive 359% jump from last year.
Oracle expects its revenue from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to cross $500 billion in the coming quarters.
Adding to the strong growth, Oracle announced it has signed four multi-billion-dollar cloud infrastructure contracts with three major clients in the first quarter. The list includes OpenAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, and Meta.
Demand for cloud services from artificial intelligence companies had also added to the positive sentiment.
Musk and Ellison’s close ties
Interetsingly, Ellison and Musk are not tied neck and neck in the list of the World’s richest. They also share a long-standing friendship. According to The Guardian, Ellison sat on Tesla’s board between 2018-2022 and invested $1 billion in Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, later rebranded as X.
Ellison holds stake in Tesla
Ellison’s wealth goes beyond Oracle. He also has stake in Tesla, owns a sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and Lanai island in Hawaii.