🤖 Is Oracle The Biggest Winner In AI?

In today’s newsletter I discuss if Oracle is the biggest winner in AI, you can now order a helicopter ride with Uber, OpenAI is investing in the AI-generated movie 'Critterz' that will debut at Cannes in 2026, Microsoft is partnering with OpenAI rival Anthropic to use in their Office 365, the Nasdaq is investing $50 million dollars in the crypto exchange Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins, Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence has launched a low-cost AI model called K2 Think to compete with OpenAI and DeepSeek, and Serena Williams is making an investment in the women's 3-on-3 basketball league Unrivaled.

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🤖 Is Oracle The Biggest Winner In AI?

Oracle is having one heck of a year! The company has a long history as a leader in the tech industry, and now they’re at the very center of the AI boom. OpenAI just signed a massive deal with Oracle to purchase $300 billion dollars worth of computing power from Oracle over a five year period. The agreement isn’t set to begin until 2027, but the sum of the deal eclipses OpenAI’s current revenue and creates one of the most valuable cloud contracts ever signed. This staggering deal comes amid growing concern over a potential AI bubble (as in, we’re DEFINITELY in an AI bubble). Some analysts worry that inflated valuations and investor enthusiasm may be outpacing AI’s real world profitability. Oracle's shares surged on the news as the software maker reported explosive cloud computing growth. By midday Wednesday, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who owns around 41% of Oracle’s shares, had become the world’s wealthiest person with a net worth of around $393 billion dollars, unseating Elon Musk who by some estimates has a net worth of around $385 billion dollars depending on how you value his interest in the private companies he owns including SpaceX, X, Neuralink, and xAI.

Wall Street reacted with incredible enthusiasm to the news of Oracle’s success in securing these large contracts for AI data center and cloud computing services, with the company’s remaining performance obligations (RPOs) ballooning to $455 billion dollars, which is a fancy way of saying contracted future revenue from signed customer contracts that Oracle hasn’t yet earned or recognized as revenue.

On Wednesday, September 10, 2025, Oracle’s stock rose by 35.95%, marking its largest single day jump since 1992. Let that sink in for a minute! The surge added around $237 billion dollars to Oracle’s market valuation, which at the end of the day stood around just shy of a $1 trillion dollar valuation at around $922.22 billion dollars. With Oracle’s year to date returns crossing 100%, the company's aggressive push into the AI infrastructure space is clearly paying off and solidifying its position against cloud competitors like Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure.

The explosive stock growth has had an immediate and historic impact on the personal fortune of Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison. The massive stock rally added a staggering $101 billion dollars to his net worth in just a single day. Larry Ellison’s net worth now stands at over $393 billion dollars, making him the richest person in the world. Larry Ellison has unseated Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose fortune is estimated to be around $385 billion dollars and who has dominated global wealth rankings since 2024.

Larry Ellison’s rise to the top of the wealth rankings, at the age of 81, highlights his continued influence in the tech world, and the extraordinary growth of Oracle Corporation, which he co-founded 48 years ago in 1977. Larry Ellison’s new status as the world's richest person underscores how the growing AI industry, the intense cloud computing race, and the demand for AI infrastructure is reshaping the global wealth rankings.

🚁 Business

Uber has partnered with Joby Aviation to bring helicopter rides from the recently acquired Blade passenger business to the Uber app as early as 2026. The deal will allow Uber users to use Blade's existing network in the New York metropolitan area and Southern Europe, which flew over 50,000 passengers in 2024.

🎬 Entertainment

OpenAI is investing in the AI-generated movie 'Critterz,' which is seeking a debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. This is a significant development for the entertainment industry, as the movie's production leveraged AI to generate footage, promising lowered costs and a faster turnaround for future projects. The film's script was written by a person, with human artists feeding images into AI tools to create the final footage of the woodland creatures. So there’s still humans involved in the making of this AI-generated movie….for now.

🤖 Tech

Microsoft is spreading its bets around so it doesn’t get caught being reliant on only one AI company. Microsoft is paying Anthropic to use their AI in Office 365 to power new features in Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. This strategy comes after Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion dollars in OpenAI. Seems like Microsoft thinks a little friendly competition is the best way to keep its AI partners on their toes.

🏦 Stock Markets

The Nasdaq is investing $50 million dollars in the crypto exchange Gemini, founded by Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss. The investment is part of a private placement tied to Gemini's planned initial public offering, which aims to raise up to $317 million dollars. This partnership between a traditional financial giant and a crypto firm is one more step in bridging the gap between the old world of investing and the new world of cryptocurrency.

🤖 AI

Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) launched a low-cost AI model called K2 Think, a 32 billion parameter model which the university claims performs on par with those from OpenAI and DeepSeek. According to Hector Liu, director of MBZUAI's Institute of Foundation Models, they treated the model more like a system. While countries like Saudi Arabia are investing billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, Abu Dhabi believes they can do a lot more with less. Here’s to hoping they can keep this momentum before their oil money runs out.

🏀 Sports

Serena Williams is making an investment in the women's basketball league Unrivaled, through her firm Serena Ventures. The new league Unrivaled has a 3-on-3 format, and was recently valued at $340 million dollars following a September 2025 Series B funding round. Serena Williams's estimated net worth is as much as $350 million dollars, so she clearly knows a good investment when she sees one. Who knew retirement would be so much work for Serena Williams?

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.