Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday, according to wealth tracker Bloomberg, as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading.
A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years running. Stock in one of Musk’s biggest holdings, Tesla, has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle’s, dropping 14% so far this year as of Tuesday.
The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle powered by multibillion dollar orders from customers as the artificial intelligence race heats up.
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Another news organization with a long history of tallying the world’s richest, Forbes, still has Musk at the top, at $439 billion. Bloomberg put his net worth at $385 billion. The difference is in how the two estimate the value of Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, among other private holdings.
With Ellison’s surging fortune Wednesday, he could fund the lifestyles of 5 million American families for a year, about the entire population of Florida, allowing them to all quit their jobs, assuming the U.S. median household income.
Or Ellison could just tell all of South Africa to take a vacation for year and produce nothing, based on its gross domestic product.
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Ellison’s son David owns Paramount, a Skydance company which is the parent company of CBS.
