$34 billion was wiped from Larry Ellison's net worth days after briefly becoming the world's richest as 'AI bubble' fears grow | Fortune

"That meant a sizable gain for Ellison's net worth, which is heavily tied to the company. The 81-year-old entrepreneur co-founder, who currently owns more than 40% of Oracle, subsequently enjoyed a $101 billion surge in wealth overnight, to $393 billion-placing him ahead of Musk's $385 billion fortune. He joined the likes of Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos and LVMH's Bernard Arnault as the few members of the ultra-rich club to surpass the Tesla CEO since he took the top spot back in 2021."

"But Ellison's ranking as the world's richest person was short-lived: His estimated net worth fell by $34 billion in the two days following Oracle's stock surge, according to Bloomberg's index. Although he has made some wealth gains since, he still stands at a net loss of $23 billion from his high last Wednesday. And J. Bradford DeLong, a U.C. Berkeley economist, tells Fortune that the sharp downfall was triggered by "second thoughts" around Oracle's cloud deal with OpenAI."

"On Wednesday last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had signed a contract with Oracle to purchase $300 billion in computing power over the next five years. It's one of the largest cloud contracts ever signed-and the markets went crazy. DeLong says that Oracle would profit heavily from the deal, regardless of whether OpenAI becomes the leading AI business-consumer tech company."

Larry Ellison's wealth jumped about $101 billion after markets reacted to a reported Oracle deal to provide vast computing power to OpenAI. Ellison owns more than 40% of Oracle, and his net worth rose to an estimated $393 billion, briefly surpassing Elon Musk. Bloomberg's index later showed a $34 billion decline in the two days after the surge, leaving Ellison roughly $23 billion below his peak. Economist J. Bradford DeLong attributed the reversal to "second thoughts" about Oracle's involvement with OpenAI. The Wall Street Journal reported the OpenAI-Oracle contract could total about $300 billion over five years, prompting volatile market responses.

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