Larry Ellison overtakes Elon Musk as the world's richest person

Tech billionaire Larry Ellison (pictured right) has claimed the title of the world's richest person for the first time, surpassing Elon Musk. Ellison's wealth jumped by $101 billion to $393 billion after Oracle's blockbuster earnings report Tuesday. Musk's is worth $385 billion.

Oracle shares surged as much as 42 percent on Wednesday, on pace for the stock's biggest single-day gain since 1992. CEO Safra Catz revealed that Oracle signed four multibillion-dollar contracts in the latest quarter and expects several more in the coming months that will exceed a half a trillion dollars. On Wednesday, investors rushed to snap up stocks, trading more than 77 million of the company's shares by mid-day.

The 81-year-old Ellison, Oracle's largest individual shareholder, co-founded the company in 1977 after dropping out of college. He is also known for his private life: Ellison has been married six times. His current wife, Jolin Zhu, also known as Keren Zhu, is 33, and has been involved in Ellison's business ventures, including college football investments.

Zhu (pictured right) has known Ellison since at least 2018 when she was pictured sitting with him on consecutive days at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament which was held in Indian Wells, California, in March of that year. At the time, Ellison was still married to fourth wife Nikita, 38, although divorce documents obtained by Daily Mail show a separation date of 2016 with legal proceedings concluding in May 2020. Ellison's previous marriages include actress Barbara Boothe, Melanie Craft, Sandra Black, Nancy Wheeler Jenkins, along with a long-term partnership with Ukrainian-American model Nikita Kahn.

He owns 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lana'i and helped revive the Indian Wells tennis tournament in California. The billionaire also has also been involved in high-profile tech and political circles, with close ties to President Donald Trump and potential investment interests in platforms like TikTok.

Ellison owns more than 40 percent of Oracle's shares. His fortune was boosted by today's price spike. The company has struck deals with tech heavyweights like Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, and Microsoft, and it powers leading AI models including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok. It also reportedly inked a five-year deal with OpenAI that will secure $300 billion in revenue. Most of the contracts are for companies to use its cloud data services, where Oracle rakes in cash and maintains its infrastructure with relatively low costs.

Analysts called the company's $455 billion backlog for AI services 'staggering.' Executives said the million-dollar contracts and low costs will continue to add cash to its coiffers until 2030. 'Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers,' CEO Safra Catz said. Executives said the cloud will make $18 billion in revenue this year. That's a 77 percent increase from last year. Catz added the company expects revenue to 'increase to $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion over the subsequent four years.'

While the sales success has boosted Ellison's net worth, the stocks boosting Musk's net worth have been on a roller coaster in 2025. Musk's net worth is largely tied to his Tesla shares. The company's shares are down nearly seven percent since January, but up nearly 59 percent since March. That month-by-month boomerang has helped several men temporarily jump into the title as world's richest man