Larry Ellison Reaches Top of Rich List as Oracle Shares Surge; Private Personal Life Draws Spotlight

Larry Ellison became the world’s richest person after Oracle Corp. shares jumped sharply this week, pushing his net worth to roughly $393 billion and surpassing Elon Musk, Bloomberg reported.

The increase, which added about $101 billion to Ellison’s fortune in a single trading day, followed a 36% rise in Oracle’s stock that lifted the company’s market value to about $958 billion. Ellison, 81, is the company’s largest shareholder and serves as its chairman.

Most of Ellison’s wealth is tied to Oracle, the longstanding enterprise software and database company he co-founded. Bloomberg’s ranking placed Musk in second with an estimated $385 billion. Reports also note Ellison holds a stake in Tesla, a company long associated with Musk.

Ellison is a high-profile figure in business circles but maintains a highly private public profile. He is a two-time college dropout who co-founded Software Development Laboratories, which later became Oracle, and has long-standing interests in aviation, sailing and tennis. He owns several notable properties, including the Hawaiian island of L?nai, and carries a reputation as a significant donor and ally to political figures across party lines. He visited the White House in January 2025 following President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, after Mr. Trump announced an investment in artificial intelligence.

Ellison’s rise to the top of the wealth rankings has renewed interest in his personal life, which includes six marriages and five divorces. His first wife, Adda Quinn, met Ellison at an employment agency in Berkeley, California. They married in 1967 and divorced in 1974. In a later blog post, Quinn reflected on the relationship, saying it brought her brief public attention because of Ellison’s later success.

Ellison’s second marriage was to Nancy Wheeler, whom he married in the late 1970s. Wheeler sold her interest in the new company back to Ellison for $500; the marriage lasted about 18 months. His third marriage, to Barbara Boothe, produced two children, David and Megan Ellison. David Ellison has been involved in the entertainment industry as the founder of Skydance Media and has been named CEO and chairman of Paramount Skydance Media. Megan Ellison has produced films including American Hustle and Phantom Thread. Ellison and Boothe were married in 1983 and divorced in 1986; they have publicly maintained an amicable relationship in subsequent years.

Ellison’s fourth marriage was to Melanie Craft, a novelist and Oberlin College graduate. The pair had dated for several years before marrying in 2003; Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is reported to have been the wedding photographer. They divorced in 2010. Ellison then entered a long-term relationship with model and actress Nikita Kahn. Reports and public records show the pair were together for much of the 2010s; some outlets reported a brief marriage and subsequent split, and court filings indicate Ellison filed for divorce in November 2019 with legal proceedings that concluded in May 2020.

The man now at the top of the wealth rankings was thrust further into public attention in December 2024 when a University of Michigan alumni organization publicly referenced his newest partner, Jolin Zhu, and credited both Ellison and Zhu with providing guidance and financial resources to the Champions Circle, an alumni group that supports student-athletes. The statement acknowledged their roles in the recruitment of a high-profile high school quarterback to the Michigan program.

Zhu, 34, arrived in the United States in 2010 to study international studies at the University of Michigan. Public sightings of the pair are rare; media reports and photos show Zhu seated with Ellison at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on several occasions in 2018 and 2019. The alumni organization’s December statement referred to “Larry and his wife Jolin,” language that brought attention to Zhu’s role in Ellison’s life; Ellison and Zhu have not issued a joint public confirmation of a marriage.

Business analysts and wealth trackers say the timing of Oracle’s share surge and Ellison’s position as its largest shareholder make such swings in personal net worth relatively common among founders with concentrated equity holdings. Ellison’s assets and public commitments — from corporate leadership at Oracle to investments in other technology companies and visible philanthropic activity — will likely continue to draw attention as markets and corporate plans evolve.

For now, Ellison’s elevation to the top of global wealth rankings underscores the outsized impact that a single company’s stock move can have on individual fortunes and renews public curiosity about a figure who has combined long-term corporate control with a notably private personal life.