Larry Ellison Becomes World’s Second-Richest Person With 41% Oracle Value Surge

Larry Ellison, the 80-year-old founder of Oracle, has surpassed Mark Zuckerberg to become the world’s second-richest person, with a net worth of $251 billion. This significant increase in wealth, nearly $60 billion in 2025 alone, is attributed to Oracle’s strong earnings and growing investments in artificial intelligence (AI).

Ellison’s wealth is primarily derived from his 40% stake in Oracle, a database company he launched in 1977. The company has seen a 41% increase in value for the year to date, with a substantial rally over the past fortnight. This surge in Ellison’s wealth mirrors the trend seen with Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, whose wealth has also ballooned as policy continues to favor AI stocks.

Oracle’s recent success is not only due to its own performance but also its involvement in significant AI initiatives. The company is a key player in President Trump’s Stargate initiative, which aims to invest $500 billion into AI infrastructure over the next four years. Oracle, along with other tech giants like SoftBank, OpenAI, and MGX, are initial equity founders in this organization. Additionally, Oracle and OpenAI are key technology partners in the project, alongside Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

Oracle’s recent financial results further highlight its strong performance. In its fiscal full year results shared in May, the company revealed Q4 revenues of $15.9 billion, up 11%, with remaining performance obligations up 41% to $138 billion. The company has also announced a $3 billion investment in Germany and the Netherlands to boost cloud services and AI, accelerating the industry’s growth globally.

Despite the positive outlook, analysts remain cautious about Oracle’s future. Goldman Sachs’s analysts maintained a ‘neutral’ rating following Oracle’s financial results, citing risks associated with the company’s investments in the low-margin and capital-intensive training cycle, which may weigh on free cash flow generation for the foreseeable future.

In addition to his business endeavors, Ellison has also amended his commitment to the Giving Pledge, a promise made by some of the world’s wealthiest people to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Ellison publicly signed the pledge in 2010, promising to give away some 95% of his wealth. In an update this week, Ellison confirmed his commitment to dispensing his resources for humane work and revealed the launch of the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) at the University of Oxford. The EIT’s endeavors include transforming healthcare, combating world hunger, and slowing climate change through innovative technologies.