Oracle’s co-founder, Larry Ellison, saw his wealth grow by $40 billion in just two days after the company reported strong earnings. The stock jumped to 13%, then rose 7% by midday Friday, reaching a record high of about $215 per share.

AI Boom Drives Growth

On Thursday, Oracle shares jumped 13 per cent after the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.70 and revenue of $15.9 billion, both figures beating Wall Street forecasts.

By midday Friday, the stock had climbed another 7 per cent to a record high near $215, lifting Oracle’s market capitalisation by roughly $104 billion, more than the entire value of major corporations like Intel or Nike.

Ellison owns about 41 per cent of Oracle, so the share price spike translated directly into a $25 billion gain on Thursday and an additional $16 billion on Friday.

That $40 billion windfall vaulted him ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (with $228 billion) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (at $238 billion) to claim the No. 2 spot on Forbes’s real-time billionaires list, second only to Elon Musk’s $414 billion.

Analysts attribute the surge to mounting demand for Oracle’s cloud infrastructure, particularly for AI workloads. Deutsche Bank’s Brad Zelnick called the quarter “a watershed moment” for Oracle, while TD Cowen’s Derrick Wood noted that Oracle’s new fiscal year could usher in accelerated growth as enterprises ramp up AI investments.

Oracle already hosts major government data projects and serves as TikTok’s U.S. data provider, underscoring its strategic role in the AI and cloud markets.

Ellison’s Influence in Tech and Politics

At 80 years old, Ellison remains a key figure in both technology and politics. He has been involved with Tesla, supported political campaigns, and co-launched an AI project with SoftBank and OpenAI. As AI technology expands, Ellison and Oracle are expected to benefit even more.