Elon Musk vs Larry Ellison — Who’s the Richest Person in the World? (Sep 2025). The title “world’s richest person” is not purely symbolic: daily billionaire rankings influence markets, media narratives, investor sentiment, and philanthropic optics. Because most modern billionaires hold large portions of their wealth in publicly traded companies, a single earnings report or huge corporate contract can push someone up—or off—the top spot in minute-by-minute indexes. That volatility is what explains the recent headline: Larry Ellison briefly passing Elon Musk in September 2025.
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Elon Musk vs Larry Ellison: The current standings — as of updates Sep 10–11, 2025)
- Larry Ellison: major outlets reported a one-day net worth increase in the order of ~$100–$112 billion, putting Ellison’s fortune in the roughly $390–$405 billion range after Oracle’s stock surge on Sep 10, 2025. This surge followed blockbuster cloud deals and an earnings update.
- Elon Musk: depending on the tracker and time of day, Musk’s net worth was reported between roughly $385–$440 billion during early Sept 2025 — movement driven mainly by Tesla stock fluctuations and valuations of SpaceX/xAI holdings. At points Musk still appears at #1 on some trackers like Forbes’ real-time page, while Bloomberg’s daily index recorded Ellison overtaking him.
Important: real-time net worth trackers (Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Forbes real-time, etc.) use different methodologies and update on different cadences, so short windows can show different leaders. Reuters, Bloomberg and other major outlets confirmed the flip on Sep 10–11, 2025.
Elon Musk vs Larry Ellison: Why did Ellison leap ahead?
- Oracle’s AI/cloud announcement and huge contracts: Oracle reported multibillion-to-hundreds-of-billions level performance obligations and announced major cloud deals (including a headline deal reportedly connected to OpenAI), which sent Oracle stock sharply higher in intraday trading. That single movement increased Ellison’s paper wealth by an unprecedented amount.
- Stock-market leverage on concentrated holdings: Ellison owns a large stake in Oracle; therefore, a large percentage gain in Oracle’s share price maps quickly to a huge dollar jump in Ellison’s net worth (more so than for someone whose wealth is more diversified).
- Musk’s exposure to Tesla & short-term declines: Simultaneous weakness or modest decline in Tesla stock removed headroom from Musk’s prior lead, allowing the Ellison move to be a decisive overtake in that time window.
How wealth trackers calculate “net worth” (methodology summary)
- Public holdings: Market value of publicly traded shares is the backbone of these estimates (share price × shares owned). Trackers update in close to real time during trading hours.
- Private assets: For private companies (e.g., SpaceX), trackers estimate valuations using recent funding rounds, comparable multiples, or reported revenue/valuation hints.
- Debts, assets, liquidity: Reasonable estimates for debt obligations and cash holdings are subtracted or added, but they are often less precise.
- Timing and rounding: Bloomberg updates daily and with an editorial methodology; Forbes provides a “real-time” net worth page with its own inputs; news outlets may report snapshot figures tied to intraday trading. Because of these differences, rankings can flip minute-to-minute.
Historical context — how often has the top spot changed?
Through the 2010s and 2020s the top spot has rotated (Bezos, Musk, Arnault, Gates at various times). The combination of concentrated equity stakes in large tech firms plus volatile public markets means the ranking can change quickly. The Ellison surge in Sep 2025 is notable because of the size of the single-day paper gain — reported as among the largest single-day moves for an individual’s net worth. Bloomberg documented this as a record jump.
Elon Musk vs Larry Ellison: What this flip means (market & broader implications)
- For investors: Sudden re-rankings are a reminder of sensitivity to earnings, guidance, and large customer deals (especially in AI/cloud infrastructure). Oracle’s success highlights investor appetite for AI infrastructure plays.
- For media & perception: Being “the richest person” is a headline magnet; short-term rankings don’t necessarily change long-term influence, business control, or strategic direction.
- For philanthropy & regulation: High net worth concentration can bring extra scrutiny from regulators and the public; changes in the leaderboard sometimes renew calls for wealth taxes or increased oversight. (This is a broader contextual point rather than a single-source fact.)
Elon Musk vs Larry Ellison: Who is the richest — final answer (nuanced)
- Short answer: As of Sep 10–11, 2025, Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk according to several real-time trackers and news outlets after Oracle’s stock surge. However, which individual ranks #1 depends on which tracker and the precise timestamp you consult — Bloomberg’s index, Reuters, The Guardian, CBS, Al Jazeera, and others reported Ellison’s temporary ascendance, while Forbes’ real-time page may show slightly different numbers depending on updates. In plain terms: Ellison surpassed Musk for a short period in early September 2025, but both remain extremely close in net worth and the top spot can change quickly.
Quick timeline (Sep 2025)
- Sep 10, 2025 (market open/early trading): Oracle posts blockbuster earnings and contract news → Oracle shares surge 30–40% intraday → Ellison’s net worth jumps by about $100 billion and briefly places him at or above the top of billionaire lists.
- Sep 10–11, 2025: Media outlets (Bloomberg, Reuters, CBS, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Verge) report on the flip; real-time trackers show small differences in numbers depending on methodology and timing.
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