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Larry Ellison's net worth surpasses Zuckerberg's as Oracle stock rises nearly 15%

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Technology billionaire Larry Ellison's wealth soared on Tuesday as shares of his cloud computing company Oracle soared to an all-time high, catapulting Ellison to third place on Forbes' list of billionaires.

Key data

Ellison became richer by around $18 billion on Tuesday. His net worth rose from $173.3 billion to $191.2 billion. He thus surpassed the wealth of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg ($177 billion) and Europe's richest man, Bernard Arnault ($172 billion). The value of his share of around 40 percent in Oracle also rose rapidly.

Ellison, 80, is now the richest person in the world, behind only his buddy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ($247 billion net worth), and Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos ($197 billion).

Tuesday was a good day for all Oracle shareholders, as the stock rose as much as 14.7% to $160.50 per share, surpassing the previous high of $146.59 set in July.

The share price increase followed Oracle's quarterly earnings report, released after the market closed on Monday, which contained “good news across the board for Oracle,” Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler summarized in a note to clients on Tuesday, as the company comfortably beat analysts' consensus estimates for quarterly revenue and profit.

Surprising fact

After the company's market capitalization rose to about $435 billion from $386 billion, Oracle on Tuesday overtook Costco, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble to become the 17th largest publicly traded company in the U.S., according to data from FactSet.

Important background

Oracle also announced late Monday that it has partnered with Amazon Web Services to enable AWS customers to use Oracle's artificial intelligence applications within Amazon's cloud. The deal completes Oracle's “triple crown” of partnerships with cloud computing giants, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick, as well as previously announced collaborations with Google and Microsoft. Ellison is chairman and chief technology officer of the sprawling enterprise software company Oracle, and co-founded the company in 1977. The often outspoken Ellison, who previously served on the board of Tesla, will soon become a majority shareholder in CBS parent Paramount and is a major donor to Republican causes. He has donated millions to support Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as the Republican presidential candidate.

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