Larry Ellison, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle Corporation, added a staggering $12.4 billion to his fortune on Tuesday, riding the wave of growing investor optimism around artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. His net worth now stands at $301.7 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker, making him the second-richest person in the world, ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The billionaire’s wealth jump came after Oracle shares rose 1.24%, closing at $255.67, following an updated bullish outlook from Bank of America, which increased its price target for Oracle stock from $220 to $295.
“Oracle is well-positioned to benefit from accelerating enterprise demand for AI infrastructure,” analysts wrote, highlighting the company’s cloud computing buildout and partnerships with AI-heavy firms. [Source: Bank of America via CNBC]
Oracle Rides the AI Infrastructure Boom
What’s fueling the bullish sentiment? Soaring capital expenditures from Big Tech. Microsoft now projects $30 billion in CapEx for the upcoming September quarter up from $23.5 billion while Meta revised its full-year spending to $69 billion, beating analysts’ expectations.
These increases point to a rapid expansion in AI infrastructure spending, a sector Bank of America estimates could grow into a $155 billion market, with the subsegment of “agentic AI” alone contributing an 8% increase to the total addressable market for enterprise software.
Oracle, once seen primarily as a legacy database provider, is now gaining renewed attention for its cloud and AI capabilities, with analysts seeing it as a dark horse in the race to power the backend of AI systems.
“Larry Ellison’s long-term vision for Oracle is finally syncing with market dynamics,” said Dan Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush Securities. “AI infrastructure is no longer speculative it’s foundational.” [Source: Bloomberg]
Ellison’s Bold Bets Are Paying Off
Ellison, now 80 years old, stepped down as CEO in 2014 after 37 years at the helm, but he has remained the company’s Chairman and CTO, still holding about 40% of Oracle’s shares. This massive stake has magnified his personal gains as Oracle’s market value has climbed.
Over the years, Ellison has steered Oracle into cloud services and AI, making strategic acquisitions like the $28.3 billion purchase of electronic health records company Cerner in 2021 the largest in Oracle’s history.
This strategy of pivoting Oracle from traditional enterprise software toward cloud-based and AI-enabled infrastructure is now bearing fruit, as large tech companies seek scalable platforms to train and deploy AI models.
Who Is Larry Ellison?
Beyond his business moves, Ellison is known for his lavish and unconventional lifestyle. In 2012, he famously bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for $300 million and moved there full-time in 2020. He also served on Tesla’s board from 2018 to 2022, accumulating a large stake in the company before stepping down.
Despite the huge rally in Oracle stock and Ellison’s personal fortune, Bank of America maintained a “Neutral” rating, citing lingering questions around the extent to which AI infrastructure spending will directly boost Oracle’s top-line revenue.
“The bull-bear debate still hinges on how material AI will be to Oracle’s bottom line,” the report stated. [Source: CNBC]
A Tech Billionaire Renaissance?
Ellison’s rise reflects a broader trend where AI optimism is reshaping the tech billionaire leaderboard. With OpenAI, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Meta pouring billions into AI development, legacy tech players like Oracle are undergoing a reputational reset, transitioning from “old guard” to critical enablers of the new AI economy.
