How Larry Ellison Dropped From World's 2nd-Richest To No. 8 In Just 2 Months

Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle, fell from the world's second-richest person to No. 8 in two months, with his net worth dropping $104 billion to $192.6 billion, according to Forbes. Oracle's stock plunged 54% from a June 1 high of $250 to a July 28 low of $114.50, rebounding to $150.52, after the company announced plans to raise $40 billion in debt and equity and projected capital expenditures of $95 billion by fiscal 2027, prompting concerns from analysts and a credit rating downgrade from S&P Global.

Less than a year ago he was the 1 richest man in the world. 10 weeks ago he was 2. But yesterday Larry Ellison dropped to 8, Forbes reports, falling behind Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Ellison's net worth is now estimated at just $192.6 billion — after a $104 billion decline: Shares of Oracle plunged roughly 54% between hitting a high of just over $250 on June 1 to a low of $114.50 on July 28, though the stock rebounded slightly to $150.52 as of Friday. A decline followed Oracle telling investors it expected to raise $40 billion through debt and equity financing, with capital expenditures surging 162% to $55.7 billion and spending expected to top $95 billion by fiscal 2027. Jacob Bourne, an analyst at eMarketer, told Reuters there are broader concerns about how Oracle would fund its capital spending to match its revenue projections, and Bank of America analysts separately flagged in a note cautioning that more than 50% of Oracle's remaining performance obligation comes from OpenAI. Melius Research analysts wrote last month that Oracle's spending plans may not hold if OpenAI or Anthropic demands more computing capacity. S&P Global also downgraded Oracle's credit rating in July, arguing the firm's "rapidly expanding" AI infrastructure business could pay off, but may be too expensive and could weaken Oracle's financial position in the meantime. $443 billion. That's how much Oracle's market valuation has dropped since peaking at $877.1 billion in September, hitting $433.5 billion as of Friday... Oracle, once viewed as a potential winner of the booming AI infrastructure buildout, has since raised concerns among investors who appear to view the firm as taking on too much financial risk to fund its projects. Wall Street has cautioned that mega-cap tech firms may be taking on too much spending to match growing demand for AI products, with firms like Amazon expecting to spend more than $200 billion. Oracle's backlog has exploded to $638 billion, but more than half is reportedly associated with OpenAI, and some analysts have cautioned that most of those funds may not be guaranteed. Read more of this story https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/08/15/2047249/how-larry-ellison-dropped-from-worlds-2nd-richest-to-no-8-in-just-2-months?utm source=rss1.0moreanon&utm medium=feed at Slashdot.