A powerful rally in tech stocks added a collective $13 billion to the personal fortunes of three of the world’s richest men on Thursday, showing the sector’s outsized influence on global wealth and investor sentiment.
Oracle co-founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison led the gains, adding $7.9 billion in a single day as Oracle shares climbed 3.19% to close at $237.32.
Ellison’s net worth now stands at $282.2 billion, placing him firmly in the No. 2 spot on Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings, behind only Elon Musk.
The 79-year-old tech magnate owns roughly 40% of Oracle Corp, which has seen renewed investor interest thanks to its deepening footprint in cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence.
Oracle’s acquisition of health IT giant Cerner in 2021 for $28.3 billion was a bold bet on the convergence of healthcare and enterprise software. That bet appears to be paying off, especially as large organizations turn to Oracle for AI-powered enterprise tools.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon, added $3.2 billion to his fortune Thursday, as shares of Amazon.com Inc rose 1.59% to $223.41. Bezos, who owns around 9% of Amazon, now holds an estimated net worth of $236.8 billion, making him the world’s fourth-richest person.
Some context
Amazon’s stock has remained resilient in 2025, supported by the company’s aggressive expansion into artificial intelligence through its cloud division, AWS, and steady improvements in logistics automation. Thursday’s uptick was further fueled by optimism around Amazon’s consumer insights tools, which use AI to optimize product placement and ad revenue across its platforms.
- Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg also saw a sizable gain, with his net worth climbing by $1.9 billion. Shares of Meta Platforms Inc closed at $719.01, reflecting a 19.99% year-to-date increase. Zuckerberg, who still owns roughly 13% of the company, remains a key figure in steering Meta’s strategic focus on AI and hardware innovation.
Meta’s latest momentum has been bolstered by its successful rollout of new AI-enabled wearables and growth in its messaging platforms. While its metaverse ambitions continue to evolve, Wall Street has responded favorably to the company’s ability to deliver profits while exploring frontier tech.
What you should know
The combined $13 billion wealth gain for Ellison, Bezos, and Zuckerberg mirrors a broader resurgence in technology stocks, which have rebounded strongly in 2025 after periods of uncertainty driven by inflation and interest rate pressures.
The Nasdaq Composite posted solid gains on Thursday, powered by mega cap tech names and rising enthusiasm for AI applications across sectors.
The day’s market moves demonstrate the extent to which a small group of tech visionaries continue to benefit from the sector’s rebound and how their fortunes remain closely intertwined with the companies they lead or founded.
