AI Boom Propels Oracle Stock, Lifts Ellison Toward Top of Billionaire List
Oracle (ORCL.N) shares surged about 43% to a record high on Wednesday, putting the company on track to join the elite trillion-dollar club and propelling co-founder Larry Ellison closer to the top of the world’s richest list.
The company unveiled four multi-billion-dollar contracts on Tuesday, amid an industry-wide shift, led by companies such as OpenAI and xAI, to aggressively spend to secure the massive computing capacity needed to stay ahead in the AI race.
The stock was last up 36.7%, after rising to hit a record high of $345.69, set for its biggest one-day percentage jump since 1992.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that OpenAI has signed a contract to purchase $300 billion in computing power from Oracle over roughly five years, marking one of the biggest cloud contracts ever signed.
A majority of the new revenue Oracle described on Tuesday will come from the OpenAI deal, the report said. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request, while Oracle declined to comment.
Ellison, 81, whose net worth is largely derived from his 41% stake in Oracle, saw his fortune rise by about $100 billion to around $392.6 billion, according to Forbes.
He is rapidly closing in on Tesla chief Elon Musk in the race for the title of the world’s richest person. Musk’s net worth last stood at $439.9 billion.
Oracle will add about $234 billion to its market valuation, taking the total to around $913 billion, if gains hold, and bringing the company closer to the coveted $1 trillion-dollar club.
Its shares have risen 45% so far this year, outperforming the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks and the broader S&P 500 index (.SPX) with investors betting big on AI-driven cloud firms.
“Over the next few months, we expect to sign up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars,” said CEO Safra Catz during a post-earnings call.
Currently, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon Web Services (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Google Cloud (GOOGL.O) dominate the cloud computing market with a combined 65% share, while Oracle, Alibaba, CoreWeave and others hold a smaller slice of the market.
Oracle’s first-quarter results lifted shares of Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), which supply semiconductors used in data centers. Shares of the companies rose between 2% and 8%.
Competitor CoreWeave’s (CRWV.O) shares were up about 15%.
This article was first reported by Reuters
