Larry Ellison, the co-founder of database giant Oracle, has surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world’s third-richest person. The net worths of both men have been on the rise during the pandemic, but Ellison’s recent success with the company’s infrastructure business and cloud services boosted his fortune to $129.8bn, slightly overshadowing Gates’ $129.1bn. Ellison owns approximately 42.9% of Oracle and made most of his fortune from his stake in it. The company’s recent investment in an AI competitor of OpenAI will also help bolster Oracle’s AI capabilities. Ellison also holds a 1.5% stake in Tesla.
Oracle’s share value has climbed more than 41% year-to-date, with strong Q4 earnings seeing revenue up 17% YoY to $13.8bn. This growth has primarily been spurred by the company’s cloud division, which saw revenue increase 54% YoY to $4.4bn. Notably, Oracle’s Q4 cloud sales saw $1.4bn from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), up 76% YoY, and $3bn from Software as a Service (SaaS), up 45%. As a result, Oracle has gained market share from competitors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean. The company’s growth has helped it become a major player in the tech world once again.
Larry Ellison’s wealth is also due in part to his significant stake in Tesla, with his total holdings currently valued at over $11bn. With Elon Musk ranking as the world’s richest person with a net worth of $225bn, Ellison still has a ways to go before he can claim the top spot. Nonetheless, Ellison’s recent overtaking of Gates on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index signifies the continued ascendancy of tech companies in the global economy. Of the top 10 richest individuals in the world, eight are from the tech sector. As Oracle’s growth rates begin to moderate, however, its stock price could come under pressure.
