Oracle’s Larry Ellison just rocked the billionaires club—a $40 billion gain has made him the second-richest man, ahead of Bezos and Zuckerberg

• Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison is now the second-richest person in the world, after his cloud-computing business’s stocks soared last week. The chairman’s net worth surged by more than $40 billion, outpacing the wealth of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and reaching a high of $250.9 billion. But he’ll have a hard time topping the riches of his close friend Elon Musk, who sits on a cool $405.8 billion fortune.

No one was in a better mood last week than Larry Ellison—the Oracle cofounder shot up Forbes’ billionaire rankings list, reaching the number two spot, right below his close friend Elon Musk.

Ellison’s net worth now stands tall at $250.9 billion after Oracle’s recent earnings report triggered its shares to skyrocket.

With approximately 41% of Oracle’s shares in his name, the cloud-computing mogul saw his net worth climb by over $40 billion in a matter of days. On Thursday last week, his fortune grew by $25 billion, and increased by another $16 billion on Friday: easily two of the largest daily swells in billionaire net worth that week, according to Forbes. 

Now Ellison has overtaken Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, who is currently worth $229 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg, who has a $240 billion net worth, in the billionaires club.

The one person he hasn’t topped yet is Elon Musk—Ellison’s close friend, who is still the world’s wealthiest man with $405 billion in riches. There’s nearly a $155 billion difference between their respective net worths, so Ellison has his work cut out for him if he ever hopes to reach number one.

Last Wednesday, the afternoon earnings report was dubbed a “watershed” moment for the cloud-computing company. It was also a big moment for Ellison’s wallet.

The report shows Oracle’s total revenue for the 2025 fiscal year rose by 8%, reaching a whopping $57.4 billion. The $1.70 adjusted earnings per share outperformed Wall Street’s expectations, alongside its unprecedented $15.9 billion in sales. One day after these figures were released, Oracle’s stock soared by 13%—and by midafternoon Friday, it rose another 7% to a record of $215 per share.

Ellison, the chairman and CTO of Oracle, subsequently enjoyed an 11-figure surge in net worth. Last Tuesday afternoon, the day before the cloud-computing titan released its earnings report, Ellison’s net worth stood at $213 billion.

While the 80-year-old entrepreneur may feel on top of the world right now, there’s no telling where he’ll be in 2026. Billionaires’ wealth fluctuates all the time—Bernard Arnault, founder and CEO of luxury fashion house LVMH, was the world’s richest person at the start of 2024 with $231 billion. Today, he’s in seventh place with a net worth of $142 billion, thanks to tumbling stocks.