Larry Ellison, Oracle Corp.’s (NYSE:ORCL) co-founder and chairman, has once again overtaken Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg to become the world's second-richest person. This is despite them both having $251 billion net worth.
What Happened: According to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, Ellison and Zuckerberg are tied at $251 billion, but because Ellison has gained $59 billion this year while the Meta CEO is up $43.4 billion, the Oracle co-founder might have placed above.
This ranks him just after Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who remains the world's richest person at $358 billion.
Others in the top five wealthiest individuals list are Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos and former Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, with net worths of $247 billion and $174 billion, respectively.
Why It’s Important: Ellison's wealth, more than 80% of which is tied to Oracle stock and options, soared as Oracle shares climbed 47.27% in the last six months, reported Bloomberg.
The rally followed news on Tuesday that the U.S. government would ease export restrictions, allowing chipmakers like Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) to resume selling some semiconductors to China.
Oracle, which relies on high-end chips for its cloud and AI infrastructure, was among the top beneficiaries of the policy shift with a gain of 2.48% during Tuesday's regular trading session, according to Benzinga Pro.
The company has also inked multibillion-dollar cloud deals and ramped up partnerships with firms including OpenAI and SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBF) (OTC:SFTBY) as part of its Stargate initiative.
Oracle's stock has also nearly tripled since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, the report said.
According to Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings, Oracle is demonstrating strong positive momentum in the short, medium and long term. Additional performance insights are available here.
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