Lanai owner Larry Ellison nears top of world’s richest person list

STAR-ADVERTISER / AUG. 5, 2017

Larry Ellison discusses future projects related to Lanai during a 2017 Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview at his Four Season Resort Lanai.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who owns nearly all of the island of Lanai, is within striking distance of the world’s richest person title as his company’s stock has become a Wall Street darling.

Ellison’s net worth stood at around $372 billion, largely driven by his 41% stake in Oracle, compared with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $441.2 billion fortune that tops Forbes’ global wealth rankings. In 2019, Ellison was ranked by Forbes as the world’s seventh-richest person with a net worth of $64 billion.

An AI-driven record surge in Oracle’s stock on Wednesday put the company closer to the trillion-dollar valuation mark as the enterprise software maker continues to enjoy a remarkable rise, fueled by a wave of multi- billion-dollar cloud deals. Oracle is benefiting in the scramble for computing power as companies pour billions to become leaders in the AI race.

Oracle’s shares fell about 6% Thursday after climbing as much as 36% on Wednesday but the company’s market valuation was still nearly $900 billion. Oracle said Tuesday its order backlog is on track to hit a half-trillion dollars in the coming months.

“A bit of buyer exhaustion here. I think the ‘buy the dip’ crowd is likely to reemerge,” Dennis Dick, chief strategist at Stock Trader Network, said Thursday. “The guidance was so incredible, hard to think that this story is over.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported Wednesday that OpenAI has signed a $300 billion deal with Oracle for computing power, among the biggest in history.

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Oracle’s stock has nearly doubled in value this year, making it among the top performers in the S&P 500 index, trouncing gains made by the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks.

Ellison bought nearly 98% of Hawaii’s sixth-largest island in 2012 from fellow billionaire David Murdock, who died in June.

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