Google co-founder Larry Page on Monday overtook Oracle’s Larry Ellison to become the world’s second-richest person, while shares of parent company Alphabet continued a week-long rally on the back of artificial intelligence.
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Alphabet shares advanced 5.8% to around $317 in opening trading on Monday, following an 8.4% rally for the stock last week that boosted its value from just over $276 to just under $300.
Oracle shares fell 1.5% to below $196 after shares plunged about 12% over the previous two trading sessions.
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Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998, has a net worth estimated at $255 billion, after increasing by $8.7 billion on Monday. His fortune has grown exponentially over the past five years, rising from $50.9 billion in 2020 to just over $144 billion in early 2025. Ellison’s net worth has similarly accelerated this year, after becoming only the second person to reach $400 billion, although his fortune has declined as Oracle’s stock has fallen in recent weeks, raising the net worth of Ellison to about $248.8 billion. Brin surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($235.1 billion) to become the world’s fourth-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $236.4 billion.
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67%. That’s the rally Alphabet shares have seen since hitting a low of $187.82 on August 1. Oracle shares have plunged 43% since rising nearly 36% on Sept. 10, marking the biggest intraday gain for the stock since 1992.
Why does Larry Page own more Alphabet shares than Sergey Brin?
Everything seems to depend mainly on Brin’s charitable donations. Page and Brin together own 87.9% of Alphabet’s Class B shares, although Page has amassed 389 million shares, compared to Brin’s 362.7 million. Alphabet has three classes of shares: Class A, Class B and Class C, which grant one vote per share, 10 votes per share and no votes, respectively. The equity difference between the Google co-founders is largely attributable to stock trading, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): Brin has been more active in selling his stake than Page, who last disclosed that he sold shares in 2022. Brin has also donated his Alphabet and Tesla shares on multiple occasions to nonprofit organizations and Parkinson’s disease research in recent years, including a $700 million donation. earlier this year, as well as donations of $615 million and $600 million in 2023, and a donation of $450 million in 2021.
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Why are Google shares on the rise and Oracle shares on the decline?
Alphabet stock appears to have benefited from recent optimism over the company’s AI business in recent weeks. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed a nearly $5 billion stake in Alphabet earlier this month, marking one of the tech firm’s rare bets behind a larger stake in Apple. Alphabet also launched its latest AI model, Gemini 3, last week in an announcement that fueled a 6% rally for the stock. The company revealed a 34% increase in cloud revenue through its third quarter last month, as Alphabet surpassed $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time. Oracle, however, has declined along with Nvidia, Broadcom and other mega-cap companies in recent weeks as fears of an AI bubble grow. Bank of America, in a survey of global fund managers released last week, reported that 45% of investors viewed an AI bubble as a top risk. More investors have begun trading against Oracle stock as part of a broader bet against AI trading, according to Bloomberg.
This article was originally published by Forbes US
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