Larry Ellison Just Leapfrogged Jeff Bezos To Become The World's Third Richest Person. Next Stop, World's First Trillionaire?

This week, Larry Ellison's net worth increased by $34 billion in roughly 48 hours, thanks to a massive rally in Oracle's stock price following a blowout earnings report and rising investor confidence in the company's AI capabilities.

Shares of Oracle soared 13% on Thursday and another 7% on Friday, closing at a record high of approximately $215. The surge added over $100 billion to Oracle's market capitalization and pushed Ellison's personal fortune to $235 billion, up from around $201 billion earlier in the week.

That gain vaulted Ellison into the third spot among the world's richest people, leapfrogging Jeff Bezos and now trailing only Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

Current Top 5 Richest People in the World:

1. Elon Musk – $368 billion
2. Mark Zuckerberg – $241 billion
3. Larry Ellison – $235 billion
4. Jeff Bezos – $234 billion
5. Bill Gates – $180 billion

For Ellison, this marks not only a financial milestone but also a historic turning point in one of the tech world's most iconic rivalries.

Larry and Bill (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Oracle went public on March 12, 1986 — just one day before Microsoft's IPO. From that moment forward, Ellison and Bill Gates were locked in a decades-long battle for software dominance. While Oracle specialized in enterprise databases and cloud infrastructure, Microsoft exploded into consumer and enterprise software, capturing a far larger share of the market, and for most of their careers, Gates dramatically outpaced Ellison in terms of wealth.

As you probably know, Bill Gates was the richest person on the planet, with only a few brief interruptions, from 1997 until 2017. During those years, Larry was largely out of the spotlight in terms of wealth rankings.

Even a decade ago, Ellison's net worth hovered around $30–40 billion, while Gates stood at roughly $80 billion.

Much of the difference comes down to how the two men managed their equity. Gates, who owned 45% of Microsoft at IPO, gradually sold off nearly all of it over the decades. His current stake in Microsoft is down to around 1.4%, and while that was a wise move in terms of diversification and philanthropy, it limited his exposure to the company's staggering growth. With Microsoft now worth $3.5 trillion, a hypothetical 30% stake would be worth $1.05 trillion — enough to make Gates the world's first trillionaire.

Ellison, by contrast, never let go of the wheel. Four decades after the IPO, he still owns roughly 41% of Oracle. As Oracle's market cap climbed to $600 billion for the first time this week, Ellison's patience and concentration have paid off in dramatic fashion.

What Would It Take to Top Marky Mark & The Zucky Bunch?

To surpass Mark Zuckerberg and become the world's second-richest person (assuming Zuckerberg's net worth holds steady at $241 billion), Larry Ellison would need Oracle's stock to climb from $215 to around $220 per share, or its market cap to increase by roughly $15 billion. A 2.5% increase in Oracle's stock would do the trick. Very possible — maybe even by Monday.

Could Larry Ellison Become a Trillionaire?

Believe it or not, that's not entirely out of the question. At a 41% ownership stake, Ellison's net worth rises roughly $41 billion for every $100 billion added to Oracle's market cap. To reach $1 trillion, Ellison would need his Oracle shares alone to be worth that amount — which would require the company's market cap to hit about $2.44 trillion.

That's more than four times its current size — but not unthinkable. Oracle's market cap was just $60 billion in 2005 and $180 billion in 2015. On Friday, Oracle's market cap ended at $600 billion for the first time. As further evidence, Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia have already crossed the $3 trillion threshold, and Oracle is aggressively positioning itself as a key player in AI infrastructure, a sector that could see exponential growth in the coming years.

For now, Ellison is the third richest person in the world, and perhaps the greatest living example of what patient, long-term ownership can achieve.

Disclosure: The author owns shares of Oracle Corporation in a retirement account. This article is for informational/entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice.