How Larry Ellison became the world’s richest man — for just one day

When you think of the world’s wealthiest tech titans, names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg would come to your mind.

However, in an unexpected turn of events, on September 10, Larry Ellison, the 81-year-old co-founder of Oracle, topped the global rich list.

For a single day, Ellison’s net worth surged to nearly $400 billion, surpassing Musk and making him the richest individual on Earth, before market corrections shaved billions off his fortune.

Who is Larry Ellison?

Lawrence Joseph Ellison, born in New York City in 1944 and raised in Chicago, is an American businessman best known for founding Oracle Corporation in 1977.

He served as its CEO until 2014 and remains executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Ellison’s journey: From college dropout to wealthiest individual

Despite his immense success, Ellison never completed a college degree. He studied briefly at the University of Illinois and later the University of Chicago, where he picked up computer programming skills.

That said, dropping out proved to be the pivotal decision that led him to Silicon Valley, and ultimately, to creating one of the world’s most powerful software companies.

In 1977, he co-founded Software Development Laboratories, later renamed Oracle, to build relational databases at a time when data management was still primitive.

Oracle’s early breakthrough came with the first commercial SQL database, revolutionizing how corporations handled digital information.

The company grew steadily, going public in 1986 and becoming the backbone of enterprise computing.

Today, it remains a global powerhouse, and Ellison’s stake has kept him among the world’s richest for decades.

Ellison’s personal wealth and investments

Ellison’s wealth is far from confined to Oracle stock. His vast portfolio includes real estate, luxury assets, and strategic investments.

In 2012, he purchased 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for around $300 million, where he has since launched sustainability initiatives.

His holdings also include mega-yachts, private jets, and estates in California and Florida.

Beyond real estate, Ellison has invested heavily in entertainment and sports. He backed Skydance Media, founded by his son David Ellison, and owns the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Additionally, he was an early investor in Tesla and famously pledged “a billion dollars, or whatever you recommend” to help Musk purchase Twitter (now X) in 2022.

Is Ellison richer than THESE iconic giants?

The surge added $100 billion to his fortune in a single day, a record jump in history.

Ellison’s temporary wealth exceeded the market capitalisation of iconic giants like Disney ($204B), McDonald’s ($217B), and Coca-Cola ($286B).

However, just as quickly as it came, the rally cooled. Within two days, Ellison’s fortune had dropped by $34 billion, highlighting the volatility tied to his Oracle stake.

Here’s how Ellison made his $393 billion fortune

Unlike most billionaires who diversify, Ellison has clung to his Oracle shares for nearly five decades.

While many tech executives steadily sell stock to reduce risk, Ellison has taken the opposite path: borrowing against his holdings to finance personal projects without giving up ownership.

Oracle’s massive share buybacks over the years have further boosted his stake, raising his ownership from 23% to more than 40%.

His individual share ownership is the largest of any of the top 10 tech billionaires. For instance, Musk owns less than 20% of Tesla, Zuckerberg owns about 14% of Meta shares and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ stake in his company is down to about 8% of shares.

This high-risk, high-reward strategy allowed Ellison to maintain control while funding his growing empire.

“Ellison does seem to stand out, not just for his wealth but for the sheer size of his pledged shares,” noted Michael Sury, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Even if it was only for one extraordinary day, Ellison’s strategies paid off, placing him above other billionaires on Earth.