Thanks to the cloud: Larry Ellison could replace Elon Musk as the wealthiest person

Larry Ellison is edging ever closer to Elon Musk as the world's wealthiest person. His fortune increased by $70 billion after Oracle announced quarterly results that beat expectations and announced further growth prospects after the New York Stock Exchange closed on Tuesday. Ellison's fortune has grown by a whopping $103 billion over the past 12 months, according to Bloomberg.

His total net worth currently stands at $364 billion. Musk is ahead of him with $384 billion. Musk was the world's richest person for the first time in 2021, before losing the title to Jeff Bezos of Amazon and then to Bernard Arnault of LVMH . He reclaimed the title last year and has held it for over 300 days.

Ellison, 81, co-founder of Oracle and now chairman and chief technology officer, has invested most of his wealth in the database software company.

Oracle's shares, which have already risen 45 percent this year, gained another 26 percent in after-hours trading after the company reported a significant increase in new orders and provided an outlook for its cloud infrastructure business that stunned Wall Street. It's the company's largest daily gain since 1999.

Oracle benefits from the cloud and AI boom

While Oracle is known for its database software, it has also recently enjoyed success in the competitive cloud computing market. Earlier this summer, the company signed a deal with Chat GPT operator Open AI for 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity—enough energy to power millions of American homes.

Recent and upcoming bookings will lead to rapid growth in the cloud infrastructure business in the coming years, said Safra Catz, Oracle's Chief Executive Officer. This business unit will grow 77 percent to $18 billion this fiscal year and continue to experience aggressive growth, reaching $144 billion in annual revenue by the end of the fiscal year in May 2030, she said.

"It was an amazing quarter," and demand for Oracle's cloud infrastructure continues to grow, Catz said. The company signed four multi-billion dollar contracts with three different customers this quarter and expects to add several more customers in the coming months, she added.

Musk could become the first trillionaire

Tesla's shares, on the other hand, fell 14 percent this year – and the outlook is mixed. Nevertheless, the automaker wants to retain Musk long-term with a compensation package of up to one trillion US dollars. The prerequisite for the payout: Tesla's market value must reach at least 8.5 trillion US dollars over the next ten years – more than currently Microsoft , Meta, and Alphabet combined. The board calls the package "a super-ambitious incentive package for a groundbreaking, ambitious, and unique CEO."

Shareholders will vote on November 6th. If the deal is approved, Musk will receive twelve performance-based tranches tied to earnings and company value targets. In addition, he will immediately receive 96 million restricted shares valued at over $31 billion, which will vest over the next two years. He will not be allowed to sell them for at least five years.