Strong earnings—and an even stronger outlook—sent Oracle Corp. shares soaring to an all-time high on Thursday, adding an estimated USD26 billion to the net worth of co-founder Larry Ellison, enough to make him the world second wealthiest man, at least on paper.
The windfall pushed Ellison’s net worth to USD243 billion, past the estimated wealth of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of USD239 billion, according to Forbes. However, he still remains well behind Elon Musk, whose net worth is estimated at over USD 400 billion, despite recent challenges at Tesla.
Oracle shares rallied after it reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, posting an 11 percent increase in total revenue to USD15.9 billion. The growth was led by cloud services and license support, which rose 14 percent to USD11.7 billion. Revenue from cloud license and on-premise license sales increased 9 percent to USD 2.0 billion.
However, it was Oracle’s optimistic forecast that truly ignited investor excitement.
Oracle chief executive officer Safra Catz said the company expects its total cloud business—including applications and infrastructure—to grow over 40 percent in fiscal year 2026, up from 24 percent growth in fiscal year 2025 that ended May 31. Cloud infrastructure alone is projected to expand by more than 70 percent.
Ellison, now executive chairman and chief technology officer, noted the growing momentum in multi-cloud environments, citing a 115 percent surge in database revenue tied to Amazon, Google, and Microsoft Azure. He also noted that revenue from the company’s Cloud@Customer product line had doubled year-over-year.
Some analysts cautioned that Oracle’s planned capital spending, expected to exceed USD25 billion next year, could pressure margins. Still, that concern was outweighed by the company’s bullish projections.
Oracle shares closed 13 percent higher on Thursday at a record USD199.87, after earnings exceeded market expectations.
