$34 billion was wiped from Larry Ellison’s net worth days after briefly becoming the world’s richest as ‘AI bubble’ fears grow

Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison (Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Staff / Getty Images)

• Elon Musk was the world’s richest person for nearly 300 days before Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison experienced a $101 billion overnight wealth surge, taking the throne from the Tesla executive. But his high was short-lived, as in the days following Oracle’s breakout earnings report, Ellison’s net worth plummeted $34 billion while Musk enjoyed a $35 billion surge. An economist tells Fortune the fall could be caused by “second thoughts” over Oracle’s recent deal with OpenAI.

Elon Musk had steadily held his spot at the top of the billionaires list for nearly a year straight before Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison briefly knocked him from the throne last week. Following better-than-expected quarterly results from the $856 billion software company, Oracle’s shares skyrocketed by 36% on September 10.