Ellison, 81, co-founded Oracle and now serves as its chairman and chief technology officer. His wealth is overwhelmingly tied to the database software giant, whose stock had already climbed 45% this year before Tuesday’s surge. Musk, of course, is the chief executive of Tesla Inc., whose shares are down 14% in 2025, reducing the value of his holdings.
The billionaire race
Ellison’s net worth has now risen to $364 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, bringing him within striking distance of Musk’s $384 billion fortune. If Oracle’s after-hours gains hold when markets reopen, Ellison could surpass Musk—highlighting how the artificial intelligence boom is reshaping both corporate profits and the global wealth leaderboard.For the second quarter, Oracle projected total revenue growth of 12%–14% and cloud revenue growth of 32%–36%, signaling confidence that the momentum driving Ellison’s wealth surge could continue.
Oracle’s blockbuster quarter
The dramatic shift in wealth stems from Oracle’s blowout quarter. Chief Executive Safra Catz stated that remaining performance obligations (RPOs)—customer contracts signed but not yet fulfilled – increased 359% in the first quarter to $455 billion.“We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1,” Catz said. “This pushed our RPO contract backlog up 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter, and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign several additional multi-billion-dollar customers, with RPO likely exceeding half a trillion dollars.”The company forecast revenue from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to grow 77% to $18 billion this fiscal year and reach $144 billion by 2031.
Demand for AI cloud tools
Catz emphasized the company’s AI positioning: “We made it very easy for our customers to directly connect all their databases … to the world’s most advanced AI reasoning models—ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok—all uniquely available in the Oracle Cloud.”
Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of industry analyst firm Valoir, told Reuters, “Both current and forecast numbers show that Oracle’s investment in infrastructure is paying off as large organizations turn to Oracle Cloud to support their AI initiatives.”
Strategic partnerships pay off
Oracle has signed major partnerships with Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, allowing its infrastructure to run within rival cloud platforms. Revenue from those clients surged 1,529% in the first quarter.
“We expect MultiCloud revenue to grow substantially each quarter for several years as we deliver another 37 datacenters to our three hyperscaler partners, for a total of 71,” Chairman Ellison said.
Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global’s Visible Alpha, noted that by offering integrated solutions across multiple environments, Oracle is not just keeping up but leading in the cloud space, potentially attracting even more businesses seeking versatile cloud options, Reuters reported.
Also read | Explained: Nvidia Q2 results beat estimates. So why did the stock fall?
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
as a Reliable and Trusted News Source