Elon Musk’s fortune has plummeted while the 80-year-old’s fortune has skyrocketed.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk’s fortune has plummeted, losing about $80 billion this year alone, pushing his net worth down to about $352 billion from a peak of more than $450 billion.

Larry Ellison, on the other hand, has had a spectacular run. His fortune has skyrocketed by more than $100 billion since the beginning of the year, bringing his total assets to $306 billion, as of August 6.

The change in ranking comes after Oracle’s stock surge this summer, which saw Ellison’s fortune increase by more than $40 billion in just three days (in mid-June 2025). This made him the second richest person in the world, behind only his close friend Elon Musk.

Who is billionaire Larry Ellison?

Larry Ellison, co-founder and current chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle, is one of the most powerful and wealthy veterans in the global technology industry. He was a member of Tesla’s board of directors and is still a major shareholder of the electric car company. With the recent surge in Oracle shares, Ellison is threatening Elon Musk’s position as the world’s number one billionaire.

Billionaire Ellison’s fortune increased by more than $40 billion in just three days in mid-June 2025.

Larry Ellison was born on August 17, 1944 in the Bronx, New York, to a poor family. His mother was a 19-year-old single mother, who sent him to Chicago to be raised by his aunt and uncle when he was only 9 months old. He grew up in a working-class family, living in a middle-class neighborhood, and early on showed a rebellious, independent personality mixed with a passion for science and mathematics.

Ellison studied at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, but dropped out, partly because of family problems and partly because he wanted to start his own business. At the age of 22, he moved to California to seek opportunities in Silicon Valley. For nearly a decade, Ellison worked many jobs such as technician, programmer… and taught himself technology in an unconventional way. It was this time that helped him accumulate practical experience and establish his passion for the database industry.

His breakthrough came when he joined the project to build a data warehouse system for the CIA codenamed “Oracle” and realized the huge potential of this industry. In 1977, he and two friends Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded Software Development Laboratories with $1,400 in initial capital, of which Ellison put up $1,200 of his own money. Two years later, the company changed its name to Oracle and began its journey to become a technology empire.

Oracle went public in 1986, raising $55 million. Since then, Oracle has grown into one of the world’s largest software companies, especially in the cloud database space, an area where Ellison is making a dramatic comeback amid the AI wave. With a 41% stake, he is a direct beneficiary of this successful pivot.

The tide turns between two tech giants

The contrasting developments between the two billionaires stem from the contrasting business situations of Oracle and Tesla. While Tesla just experienced a disappointing second quarter of 2025 with double-digit revenue declines and pessimism on Wall Street, Oracle has become a new “star” thanks to its strategy of pivoting to AI and cloud computing, two areas that are exploding globally.

Larry Ellison and his best friend Elon Musk.

Elon Musk currently holds about 13% of Tesla’s shares, so his personal fortune is heavily influenced by the company’s stock movements. In addition, Musk’s distraction from other projects like xAI and his controversial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem have also made investors more worried.

Although Tesla’s board approved a $29 billion stock package to retain him, things haven’t improved. In addition, recent polls show Musk’s image is in decline, with only about 30% of respondents rating him positively.

On the other hand, Larry Ellison, who owns 41% of Oracle shares, has reaped the rewards of the company’s meteoric rise. Oracle shares have risen more than 50% since the beginning of the year, thanks to a series of major contracts in the AI field, especially in the cloud database services segment.

If this pace continues, Larry Ellison’s position swap with Elon Musk is only a matter of time.