Oracle creator Larry Ellison lost $24.9 billion amid backing an initiative to derail the Netflix and Warner Bros. deal, reports Bloomberg. His wealth now exceeds $202 billion—he is still twice as affluent as a year ago.
The major drop in Oracle shares caused a reduction in Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s net worth by $24.9 billion, notes Bloomberg. The billionaire’s fortune is now valued at $202.8 billion; he holds the third position among the world’s wealthiest individuals and is nearly double as rich as he was twelve months ago.
Ellison’s losses arose following his pledge to support a “hostile bid” by his son David Ellison—head of Paramount Skydance—to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $108 billion. This was intended to thwart the prior agreement between Netflix and the company. Even American President Donald Trump became involved, stating that the acquisition of Netflix seemed problematic.
Subsequently, Oracle shares plummeted by 10.99%—from $223 to $190. Currently, the shares trade at $198.
On September 10, Ellison momentarily surpassed entrepreneur Elon Musk (now holds the top spot with $462 billion in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index), becoming the world’s most affluent person. That month, Oracle stock surged by 36% after its financial report was released, and Ellison’s assets reached $393 billion (compared to Musk’s $385 billion in assets at that time).
This intraday climb was the largest by percentage since 1992, adding $89 billion to Ellison’s net worth, marking the biggest single-day gain in Bloomberg’s historical tallies. However, since then, the shares have declined by around 40%, the agency observes.
In September, Oracle secured a contract with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, to provide computing capacity valued at $300 billion. As The Wall Street Journal mentioned, the agreement involves a collaboration spanning approximately five years and, according to the publication, represents one of the most significant cloud contracts in history.
As the Financial Times previously reported, Ellison in earlier years dismissed the importance of cloud computing concepts, deeming it “complete nonsense,” which caused his firm to lag in development for a long period. Oracle, established in the 1970s, initially focused on databases, yielding its leading position in cloud services to Amazon Web Services during the 2000s. Only in recent years has the firm revamped its strategy, investing in AI and cloud service initiatives, which garnered increased interest from investors and capital, the article states.
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