Elon Musk briefly lost his crown as the world’s richest person on Wednesday — only to reclaim it hours later in a dramatic shuffle atop the billionaire rankings.
The title temporarily passed to Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison after the software giant’s stock skyrocketed on stunning earnings that sent his net worth soaring by $89 billion in a single day, reaching $383.2 billion. For several hours, Ellison edged past Musk’s fortune.
But by market close, Musk was back on top with $384.2 billion, just $1 billion ahead. The rebound came despite Tesla’s slump this year, which has weighed on his wealth.
Oracle’s meteoric rise was powered by surging demand from AI firms for its cloud infrastructure, catapulting its market value by $244 billion in a day and making Ellison’s wealth spike the largest one-day increase ever recorded by Bloomberg’s index.
The billionaire flip-flop highlights the volatility of today’s tech-driven wealth rankings, with fortunes swinging wildly on the back of artificial intelligence demand. While Ellison briefly enjoyed the throne, Musk’s vast holdings in Tesla and SpaceX continue to keep him in pole position — at least for now.
Would you like me to also create a quick side-by-side profile of Musk vs. Ellison (net worth, companies, biggest recent wins, and risks) that you can use as a handy comparison chart for your readers?