Topline
Oracle chairman Larry Ellison fell behind Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday to become the world’s sixth-richest person, as Oracle shares dropped further from an all-time high despite the company’s recent deal to be a leading shareholder in TikTok’s U.S. business.
Key Facts
Shares of Oracle fell 2.3% to around $178.10 as of 11:40 a.m. EST, adding to more than 9% decline for the stock so far this year.
Meta’s shares declined slightly (0.1%) on Tuesday ahead of the company’s earnings report on Wednesday.
It’s not immediately clear what pushed Oracle’s stock lower, though some economists appeared to become pessimistic about the firm’s future: Morgan Stanley analysts led by Keith Weiss cut the stock’s price target by 33% to $213 from $320, arguing the company’s infrastructure expansion could lower Oracle’s earnings and raise its capital spending beyond what’s expected.
Wall Street’s average price target for Oracle’s stock is just over $289, according to FactSet.
Forbes Valuation
Ellison’s net worth decreased by $5.3 billion (2.3%) to $225.8 billion, ranking him behind No. 5 Zuckerberg ($229.6 billion) and No. 6 Jeff Bezos ($251.3 billion), according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list. Google cofounders Larry Page ($275.4 billion) and Sergey Brin ($254.1 billion) rank behind Tesla’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, whose net worth lowered to $777.9 billion on Tuesday.
Big Number
Nearly 49%. That’s how much Oracle’s shares have decreased since hitting an all-time intraday high of $345.72 on Sept. 10. That’s when Oracle’s stock rallied by 35%, the largest intraday gain for the company since 1992, which added more than $100 billion to Ellison’s net worth.
Tangent
Oracle was sued earlier this month by bondholders who claimed they suffered losses because the company failed to disclose how much additional debt it plans to issue to expand its AI infrastructure. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
Ellison became the second person to have a net worth above $400 billion in September, though his fortune has declined as more investors appear to bet against Oracle. He briefly became the world’s third-wealthiest person in December, shortly after TikTok signed a deal to have Oracle, private equity Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX as the leading investors in the company’s new U.S. business. That deal was finalized last week, though Oracle—which will hold a 15% stake in the company and manage TikTok’s U.S. user data—has yet to benefit financially, as shares fell more than 4% after the plans were reported. Investors appeared to be trading against Oracle late last year as part of a broader bet against AI, after CEO Safra Catz projected revenue to double to $32 billion in fiscal year 2027 before surging to $144 billion over the next three years.
