In a world focused on growth and AI capital expenditures (CapEx), Oracle stands out as a leader, as evidenced by its recent stock surge. This has made it a serious contender for Elon Musk’s title as the world’s richest person, with Larry Ellison, the company’s co-founder and CTO, at the helm.

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Once known primarily for database software and enterprise solutions, Oracle has evolved into a major player in cloud computing and is now positioning itself as an AI infrastructure builder. This transformation is supported by its expanding portfolio of AI data center deals.

Oracle recently reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2025. Despite missing expectations on most metrics—its Q2 revenue was $14.93 billion, slightly below the consensus estimate of $15.02 billion—the company saw significant growth in its revenue backlog. This increase is attributed to four major deals with OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Meta.

Oracle’s guidance for its cloud business is particularly ambitious: it expects Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue to grow from around $10 billion this fiscal year to $32 billion by 2030. Most of the forecasted revenue has already been booked in their reported Revenue at Risk (RPO).

In hindsight, this growth trajectory makes sense given that Oracle is a key player in the $500 billion Stargate AI initiative. Earlier reports detailed how OpenAI had signed a massive deal with Oracle for 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity, involving annual payments of $30 billion starting around three years from now.

In a unique start to his ruling against President Donald Trump’s administration on September 30, U.S. District Court Judge William Young included a scanned handwritten note sent to his office. The note read: “Trump has pardons and tanks – what do you have?” At the top of Young’s opinion in AAUP v. Rubio, which ruled that Trump’s effort to deport foreign-born student protesters was unconstitutional.

October 8, 2025

Further, OpenAI has expanded its agreement with Oracle to develop another 4.5 GW in data center capacity. While the specific location remains undisclosed, construction on this expansion is being carried out at Abilene by Oracle and Crusoe.

As a result, Oracle’s stock price has surged over 31 percent in pre-market trading, reaching $76 per share. This rapid appreciation has made it difficult for value-conscious investors to participate due to the stretched valuation.

The ongoing rally in Oracle shares appears driven by retail investor interest, but unlike struggling meme stocks such as GameStop or AMC Entertainment, Oracle actually generates significant revenue.

Larry Ellison’s net worth has risen by around $70 billion over the past few hours, bringing his total wealth to approximately $364 billion, just shy of Elon Musk’s $384 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. In this dynamic market, a CTO can indeed eclipse a CEO in terms of wealth.

However, Ellison’s fortune may be transient given that Elon Musk is set to receive an enormous $1 trillion pay package.

Update: Larry Ellison has officially become the richest person on the planet!