Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been dethroned as the world’s second-richest person, with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison overtaking him in Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List. Ellison’s net worth soared by an astonishing $26 billion on Thursday, June 12, reaching $243 billion — the largest single-day gain recorded by any billionaire. This pushed him past Bezos, whose fortune stands at $227 billion, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth $239 billion. Ellison is now the second-richest person globally, trailing only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose net worth stands at $407.3 billion.
The sharp rise in Ellison’s wealth comes on the heels of Oracle’s strong quarterly earnings report, which surpassed market expectations for both revenue and profit. The company’s stock surged past the $200 mark for the first time, triggering the massive jump in Ellison’s net worth.
Jeff Bezos first rose to the position of the world’s second-richest person in 2017, following a major boost in Amazon’s stock price that brought his wealth to $75.6 billion — enough to overtake investor Warren Buffett at the time. However, he lost that ranking in October 2024 when Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth surged by $78 billion to $206.2 billion, narrowly topping Bezos’ $205.1 billion.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, saw his fortune grow by $191 million earlier this week, bringing his total to $411.4 billion at the time. The increase followed an apology Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) after publicly criticizing former U.S. President Donald Trump. The apology came after a phone call between the two, signaling a possible truce after several days of heated online exchanges. The dispute began when Musk slammed a Trump-backed bill, labeling it “The Big Ugly Bill,” leading to a series of controversial posts that Musk later removed.