TL;DR: Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle way back in 1977 (!), is about to become the world’s richest person, surpassing Elon Musk (at least for now), thanks to Oracle’s AI surge. Here’s what every B2B founder needs to know about this wealth flip. And what it means for your company.
Oracle’s AI Bet Is Paying Off Big Time. At Least In Revenues — If Not Profits.
As of September 2025, we’re witnessing something remarkable in real-time. Larry Ellison’s net worth has surged to approximately $364 billion, closing in fast on Elon Musk’s $384 billion. Oracle’s stock exploded 40% in a single day—on pace for its best trading day since 1992—pushing the company toward a $1 trillion market cap at $950 billion.
But here’s the thing every B2B founder should understand: This isn’t just about two billionaires trading places. This is about the market recognizing what the numbers prove—Oracle just reported $455 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO), up 359% from a year earlier. The Street was expecting around $180 billion. Oracle delivered $455 billion. That’s not a beat—that’s a moonshot.
Go Get That AI Budget (Before Your Competitors Do)
Ellison’s wealth surge isn’t happening in a vacuum. Oracle has positioned itself as the backbone for AI workloads, and enterprises are finally opening their wallets wide for AI infrastructure spending.
Let’s break down Oracle’s Q1 FY2026 numbers by business segment—because the story they tell is exactly what every SaaS founder needs to understand:
The Three-Speed Oracle Economy (Latest Quarter Results)
🚀 Cloud Infrastructure (IaaS): +54% YoY to $3.3B
- OCI consumption revenue up 57%
- This is where the massive $455B backlog lives
- GPU superclusters driving explosive growth
- And demand, in essence, borders on infinite. Oracle cannot service all the demand it has here.
📈 Cloud Applications (SaaS): +12% YoY to $3.8B
- Strategic back-office applications up 16% to $2.4B
- Steady but not spectacular—classic SaaS growth rates
- Being driven higher by customers moving to cloud infrastructure
📉 Total Software: -2% YoY to $5.7B
- Traditional software revenue declining as expected
- Customers migrating to cloud versions
- Classic innovator’s dilemma playing out in real-time
Action item: If you haven’t already, get your AI roadmap in front of your biggest customers this quarter. The budget is there, it’s really the only place where their is incremental budget. Decisions are being made right now, and as Oracle just proved, the numbers can be absolutely staggering.
Oracle’s AI infrastructure roadmap that’s printing money:
- 2025: $10.3 billion (current run rate)
- 2026: $18 billion (77% growth)
- 2027: $32 billion
- 2028: $73 billion
- 2029: $114 billion
- 2030: $144 billion
That’s a 14x revenue multiple in 5 years. Not growth—that’s a rocket ship trajectory. And every SaaS company should be asking: what’s our version of this AI infrastructure play?
It’s Not Too Late (But the Window Is Closing)
Oracle is a 47-year-old company that just found its next act. Larry founded Oracle in 1977, and here he is, potentially becoming the world’s richest person in 2025.
For early-stage founders: The AI opportunity isn’t gone just because you didn’t start in 2023. There are still massive opportunities in vertical AI, AI infrastructure, and AI-powered workflows.
For growth-stage companies: This is your moment to double down on AI features that your enterprise customers actually want to pay for. Oracle just proved the budget is there. It’s not too late. But it will be if the competition gets that budget and you don’t.
Revenue Matters More Than Profits (And Backlog Matters Most)
Look at the tale of two wealth trajectories here:
- Musk’s wealth: Largely tied to Tesla stock, which fluctuates with EV market sentiment, production numbers, and his Twitter activity
- Ellison’s wealth: Tied to Oracle’s enterprise revenue growth, recurring subscriptions, and AI infrastructure contracts
The market is telling us something clear: Predictable, contracted future revenue beats everything else.
Here’s the kicker about Oracle’s $455B backlog from the latest quarter:
- Cloud RPO grew nearly 500% on top of 83% growth last year
- Most of this backlog is AI infrastructure contracts—multi-year, high-margin deals
- Oracle signed mutiple additional multi-billion dollar customers in Q1
- RPO will likely grow to exceed half a trillion dollars according to CEO Safra Catz
Why this matters for your B2B company:
- Future contracted revenue (RPO/backlog) now matters more than current ARR. Forward growth is king.
- Revenue over profits Oracle’s AI infra deals do not appear to be profitable. Wall Street does not appear to care.
The hard truth: The market is rewarding companies that can show massive future contracted revenue. If you’re not building a version of this AI story, you’re fighting yesterday’s battle.
The Bottom Line: Follow the AI Money (And the Backlog). You Just Have To.
While everyone’s been watching Tesla and talking about consumer AI, Larry Ellison has been building the infrastructure that powers a big chunk of enterprise AI. Even if it’s #4 or further behind Google Cloud, Azure, AWS, etc. Now he’s about to be the richest person on the planet because of it.
But the real kicker from the latest quarter—Oracle actually missed earnings expectations. They came in at $1.47 per share vs. $1.48 expected, and total revenue was $14.9 billion (up 12% YoY) vs. expectations. Yet the stock exploded 40% anyway.
Why? Because the market cares more about future contracted revenue than current quarter performance. That $455 billion backlog isn’t current revenue—it’s contracted future revenue. It’s proof that customers are signing massive, multi-year AI infrastructure deals.
For B2B founders, the lesson is crystal clear:
- The real AI money is in B2B infrastructure, not B2C apps
- Backlog and RPO matter more than current quarter revenue
- Enterprise buyers are ready to spend—if you have the right AI infrastructure solution
- Missing quarterly earnings doesn’t matter if you can prove massive future growth
Your next move: Stop chasing consumer AI trends and start building the AI-enabled software, infrastructure, tools, and platforms that enterprise customers actually need. The budget is there, the urgency is real, and as Oracle just proved with their latest quarter, the upside is massive.
