Musk Loses Crown – The New Richest Man Revealed

In September 2025, Larry Ellison—the co-founder, chairperson, and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation—briefly became the richest person in the world, surpassing Elon Musk. This was after an enormous increase in Oracle’s stock price, largely due to the company’s growth in AI-cloud business and continuing to report positive financial results. At the end of the trading day, however, Elon Musk resumed the title of the world’s richest person. Still, the magnitude of Ellison’s rise up the rankings is remarkable—and highlights a shift in the economy's power structure among technology companies.

In this article, we look at who Larry Ellison is, how Oracle’s performance caused this change, how it compares to Musk, and what these rankings mean for the future of wealth rankings among technology leaders. All figures presented are accurate at the time of early September 2025; because stock prices increase and decrease a lot, those rankings may change again.

Who Is Larry Ellison?

Larry Ellison is an old-school tech entrepreneur. He co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 and subsequently, over several decades, grew that firm into one of the planet's largest database software, enterprise applications, and more recently, cloud infrastructure, companies. Ellison was Oracle's CEO for 37 years before becoming Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.

Besides Oracle, Ellison has diversified involvement:

• He holds a big chunk of Oracle (around 40-41%).
• He has interests in other assets: real estate including the island of Lāna‘i in Hawai'i, investments in media and ownership of sporting events/teams.
• Age: 81 years old.

Compared to some other tech billionaires, Ellison has been influential but more reserved. The increased public awareness Ellison has experienced recently speaks to both his wealth and Oracle's footprint related to AI, cloud computing, and large vendors that are tied to emerging areas.

Comparing Ellison and Musk: Net Worth, Stakes & Trends

What Caused the Wealth Surge: Oracle’s Big Stock Move

Ellison's redirection in net worth was primarily driven by bounce in Oracle's stock price. Important factors:

• Oracle announced much better-than-expected quarterly results with strong demand in its cloud infrastructure business.
• Announcing major contracts and growth in "remaining performance obligations" (RPO) elevated investors' view of Oracle's worth.
• Oracle's stock price increased by 35-43% in the early trading period, which cued an increase in Ellison's net worth of approximately US$100-101 billion in one day - one of the largest increases in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for a single day.

Nevertheless, this was an artifact of shift:

• By the time of market close, a bit of remaining net worth had dissipated. From a peak during trading hours, Ellison's net worth fell a degree.
• Elon Musk regained first rank, albeit temporarily dislodge.

Larry Ellison is 81 years old

He founded Oracle in 1977 when he was 32 years old

He made his first $1 billion in 1992 at 47

Today he’s worth $400B after making $100B in a single day

You’re not too old pic.twitter.com/NJCJpwIxb4

— vittorio (@IterIntellectus) September 10, 2025

What This Means

1. Wealth Rankings Are Unstable: Ellison's short time ahead of Musk demonstrates how quickly fortunes can shift. For billionaires closely tied to tech stocks, one earnings report or contract can change things overnight.

2. Oracle’s AI Push Is Key: Ellison's bump was driven by Oracle's cloud and AI contracts. As demand for computing power continues to rise, Oracle may find even greater happiness.

3. The Bigger Picture: Other billionaires remain far behind - Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, for example. Wealth is shaky at the top and mostly dependent on stock markets, regulations, and global forces.