Ellison is closer to being the richest person in the world as Oracle approaches a $1 trillion valuation.

As the company edges closer to the trillion-dollar club on soaring gains from its AI cloud business, Oracle’s (, opens new tab shares) surged Thursday, building to a record run in the previous session and lifting equities throughout the tech sector.
Companies are spending billions to become leaders in the AI race, and the business software maker’s explosive rise—fueled by a wave of multibillion-dollar cloud deals—brings attention to the competition for processing capacity. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is on track to overtake Elon Musk as the richest man in the world thanks to the stock’s rise.

“Oracle lit a fire under the rekindled AI trade,” said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, adding that the company’s multi-billion-dollar demand outlook has triggered a “ripple effect” for AI-related stocks.

The Wall Street Journal also revealed on Wednesday that OpenAI and Oracle had inked one of the largest-ever contracts for processing power, worth $300 billion, which is probably what will make up the majority of the additional revenue Oracle announced on Tuesday. After rising as much as 35.9% on Wednesday, Oracle’s shares were up 1.5% in premarket trade, bringing the company’s market worth to a record closing of $933 billion. Among the top performers in the S&P 500 index (.SPX), the stock has nearly doubled in value this year, surpassing the gains of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks.

In contrast to Tesla (TSLA.O), whose $439.9 billion fortune currently tops Forbes’ worldwide wealth rankings, co-founder Ellison’s net worth increased by about $100 billion to $392.6 billion, primarily due to his 41% ownership in Oracle.  In comparison to its competitors in the cloud services space, Oracle’s stock was selling at a premium. Their price-to-earnings multiple for the next 12 months was 45.3, while Microsoft’s and Amazon’s were 31.3 and 31.3, respectively.