Elon Musk briefly lost his title as the world's richest person to Larry Ellison, the co-founder of information technology company Oracle.
Mr Ellison's wealth surged to $US393 billion ($593 billion) on Wednesday morning, surpassing Mr Musk's $US385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
But this was only enough for Mr Ellison to temporarily wrest the title from its longtime holder as Mr Musk edged back into pole position by $1 billion.
The pair sit comfortably ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($US264 billion) and Amazon's Jeff Bezos ($US252 billion).
Here's what we know about Oracle's co-founder and why his wealth jumped this week.
Who is Larry Ellison?
Mr Ellison, 81, helped start Oracle in 1977 in California.
He was Oracle's chief executive until 2014 and is now the company's chairman and chief technology officer.
He also sat on the board of directors for Tesla between December 2018 and August 2022, owning 45 million shares in the company before he stepped down.
More recently, Mr Ellison has positioned himself as an ally to US President Donald Trump and has regularly appeared alongside him at the White House.
He is one of three key players behind Mr Trump's $US500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) project — Stargate.
His ambitions also extend beyond the expansion of AI.
Mr Ellison funded the bulk of a $US4.75 billion bid by his son to acquire Paramount, and Oracle's name has been thrown in the ring as a possible buyer of TikTok.
Why did Ellison's wealth skyrocket this week?
The jump came after shares in Oracle soared more than 40 per cent in the first few minutes of trading on Wednesday.
This was boosted by the database software company's rosy outlook for its cloud infrastructure business and billion-dollar AI deals with companies such as OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia and Musk's xAI.
Oracle has projected as part of its quarterly earnings report that revenue from its cloud infrastructure business will jump 77 per cent this year to $US18 billion.
Mr Ellison's net worth is largely derived from his 41 per cent stake in Oracle.
So when stocks surged, it added $US100 billion to his net worth in a little over half an hour after the market opened.
Will Musk maintain his position?
Mr Musk became the world's richest person for the first time four years ago.
A big reason is his stake in electric car maker Tesla.
But stock in the company has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle's, dropping 14 per cent so far this year.
Mr Musk's far-right political views, previous affiliation with the Trump White House and work with the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have dented Tesla's brand.
It created concern among investors about his focus on Tesla, before he stepped back from DOGE, and led to protests and some consumers boycotting the brand.
This comes as Tesla shareholders have offered him a $1 trillion compensation package if he meets some ambitious targets over the next decade.
It would be the largest corporate pay package in history.
ABC with wires
