Larry
Ellison,
founder
and
former
CEO
of
Oracle
Inc.
watches
a
training
race
from
a
motor
boat
ahead
of
the
America’s
Cup
World
Series
sailing
competition
on
the
Great
Sound
in
Hamilton,
Bermuda,
October
16,
2015.
Mike
Segar
|
Reuters
Oracle
founder
Larry
Ellison
notched
a
$15
billion
gain
on
Tuesday
after
shares
of
his
software
company
had
their
best
day
in
over
two
years
and
closed
at
a
record.
Ellison,
who
started
Oracle
in
1977,
remains
the
company’s
biggest
shareholder
with
a
stake
valued
at
roughly
$146
billion
after
the
latest
pop.
He’s
the
fifth-wealthiest
person
in
the
world,
according
to
Forbes,
just
behind
Meta
CEO
Mark
Zuckerberg
and
ahead
of
Warren
Buffett.
Oracle
shares
soared
12%
to
close
at
$127.54,
after
the
software
vendor
reported
fiscal
third-quarter
earnings
that
beat
analysts’
expectations.
Revenue
in
the
company’s
cloud
services
and
licenses
support
segment
climbed
12%,
topping
estimates.
While
Oracle
was
late
to
cloud
infrastructure
and
has
been
on
the
fringes
of
the
latest
artificial
intelligence
boom,
increased
demand
for
the
company’s
AI
technology
is
allowing
Ellison
to
tout
his
company’s
expansion
in
the
hottest
market
in
the
industry.
“We’re
building
an
AI
data
center
in
the
United
States
where
you
can
park
eight
Boeing
747s
nose-to-tail
in
that
one
data
center,”
Ellison,
who
still
operates
as
Oracle’s
chief
technology
officer,
said
on
the
earnings
call.
“We
are
building
large
numbers
of
data
centers
and
some
of
those
data
centers
are
smallish,
but
some
of
those
data
centers
are
the
largest
AI
data
centers
in
the
world.”
Over
the
past
year,
Oracle
shares
have
now
spiked
52%,
lifting
Ellison’s
worth
by
about
$50
billion.
The
stock
has
outperformed
the
S&P
500,
which
has
gained
34%
in
the
past
12
months.
Unlike
Amazon’s
Jeff
Bezos,
Larry
Ellison
has
been
hanging
onto
all
his
stock
rather
than
selling
off
chunks.
According
to
FactSet,
Ellison’s
last
transaction
in
Oracle
stock
was
a
purchase
of
7,000
shares
in
2022,
and
he
hasn’t
sold
any
since
2016.
Bezos
has
sold
over
50,000
Amazon
shares
this
year.
Most
recently,
in
mid-February
he
unloaded
more
than
14
million
shares
of
his
company
valued
at
roughly
$2.4
billion.
watch
now