Oracle’s Larry Ellison Just Became the Second Richest Person in the World

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 16, 9:15AM EDT

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Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) founder Larry Ellison has surpassed Mark Zuckerberg to become the second richest person in the world.

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Oracle’s Larry Ellison Just Became the Second Richest Person in the World — © Kimberly White / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Depending on the source, Larry Ellison became the second richest person in the world either a few days ago or yesterday. Bloomberg used the second date. Ellison moved ahead of Mark Zuckerberg as his net worth hit $251 billion, which is just a fraction ahead of that of the Meta founder. Both trail Elon Musk, who holds the top spot at $358 billion. Among the top 10 people on the Bloomberg Billionaires list, Ellison has seen the largest increase this year, at $59 billion.

Ellison started Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL | ORCL Price Prediction) in 1977. It is primarily a cloud computing and database company. He never graduated from college, and he is now 80 years old. Oracle’s growth has exploded. Ten years ago, its revenue was $38 billion. In 2024, it was $53 billion. It is also viewed as one of the top AI companies in the world.

Just discussing an artificial intelligence future for a tech company has helped lift stock prices. Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion recently. Its chips are considered the backbone of global AI development. It is the first company in history to top the $4 trillion mark.

Oracle’s stock is up 41% this year, outpacing the S&P 500’s 6% run-up. Its market cap has reached $658 billion. This has made Oracle the 16th most valuable company in the world. Ellison owns 48% of the company’s stock.

Ellison’s wealth has enabled him to enjoy activities that only the very rich can afford. He has funded the U.S. boat in the America’s Cup. That could have cost him more than $200 million. He owns a 454-foot yacht called “The Rising Sun.” He owns 98% of Lanai, which is one of the Hawaiian islands. That cost him $300 million in 2012.

Ellison could be in a race for the world’s richest person for some time. Zuckerberg is only $1 billion behind him. Jeff Bezos is behind by only $13 billion.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.