Larry Ellison edges past Bill Gates as world’s fourth-richest person, Bloomberg says

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison is reaping the benefits of artificial intelligence popularity, edging past Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates to land the number four spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Monday, according to Bloomberg.

Ellison is now the world’s fourth-richest person, with a staggering $129.8 billion net worth, Bloomberg reported. He just squeaked past Gates, whose net worth — Bloomberg reported — is currently $129.1 billion. It’s the first time Ellison is richer than Gates and ranked above No. 5 on the list, the outlet reported.

Ellison announced he was stepping down as Oracle CEO in 2014, though he didn’t leave the company. He then became the technology company’s chairman and chief technology officer and has accumulated most of his wealth from his stake in it.

Oracle’s stock has risen more than 42% year to date and is currently trading at $116.50 as of Monday market close. Oracle earned a record $50 billion revenue in the 2023 fiscal year, according to company earnings released Tuesday. The company’s infrastructure business and cloud services led the growth, CEO Safra Catz said.

Oracle is cashing in on AI, investing in OpenAI competitor Cohere, which raised a total of $270 million in a funding round last week, according to reports.

Artificial intelligence is keeping investors optimistic. Bank of America economists said the S&P 500 move into the bull market was mostly because investors rallied around AI.

Ellison is the largest stockholder in Oracle and owns approximately 42.9% of its shares, a 2022 SEC proxy statement said. The 78-year-old also owns a 1.5% stake in Tesla, a 2022 SEC proxy statement shows.

Here’s what the billionaire has owned: Hawaii’s sixth largest island, Lana’l; a massive collection of Japanese and samurai art; dozens of homes in California; and, famously, some pretty expensive yachts.

Ellison sold Rising Sun, his mammoth 453-foot yacht, to Hollywood mogul David Geffen in 2010, which was the 10th largest in the world. The brash billionaire owns the 288-foot Musashi, ranking at 50.

Oracle is one of the biggest providers of corporate software in the world. In 1977, Ellison and his partners began selling the first relational database, which they called the Oracle Database. Five years later, they renamed their company “Oracle” after their software.

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CNN’s David Goldman and Nicole Goodkind contributed to this report.