- Oracle stock is surging because of AI.
- That means Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison's net worth is surging.
Oracle stock is on a tear. Shares of the business software company shot up 5% on Monday and are up 64% for the year.
The Oracle boom is directly tied to the AI boom. Even though investors are starting to wonder about all the money companies like Google are spending on AI, they are excited about what all that spending means for Oracle's cloud and database revenue.
But those numbers are kind of abstract to most people. And lots of people don't really care about enterprise software or AI bills.
So let's put it in context: The Oracle boom means that Larry Ellison, one of the world's richest men, is now much, much richer. Ellison, who co-founded Oracle, owns 40% of the company. Over the past two years, Ellison's net worth has more than doubled — from $80 billion to $181 billion.
And here's more context for people who care about media, and Hollywood: Ellison, who is financing the purchase of Paramount for his son, David, has already made enough money this week to cover the entire bill.
Larry Ellison, along with private equity firm Redbird Capital, is buying Paramount via a complicated transaction. The cost: $8.4 billion. When the deal closes, Ellison will control 77.5% of the troubled Hollywood studio and TV conglomerate. His total investment will reportedly be around $6 billion.
And on Monday, a 5% jump in Oracle stock raised Ellison's net worth by $7 billion. That's enough to fund the whole deal, plus several hundred million in walking-around money.
One more note: The Oracle boom also helps contextualize Ellison's investment in Elon Musk's version of Twitter, and explains why Ellison doesn't seem to care that the $1 billion he put into Musk's adventure in 2022 is now likely worth much, much less.
And anyway, what's a billion dollars between two longtime pals who happen to be two of the richest men in the world? Musk was staying at Ellison's estate in Hawaii — Ellison owns almost all of the island of Lanai — as he was preparing to buy Twitter a couple of years ago.
And the two men seem to be doing just fine now. Ellison says he recently had dinner with Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — another one of the world's richest men.
They talked about AI, of course.