Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison scores $12 billion gain on his Tesla stock in under 3 years

• Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison has scored a $12 billion gain on his Tesla investment.
• The technology billionaire bought the equivalent of 15 million shares in Elon Musk's automaker before joining its board in December 2018.
• Ellison's stake has ballooned in value from about $1 billion to $13 billion since then.
• Musk is close friends with Ellison and visited him on his Hawaiian island in December.
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Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison has racked up a $12 billion gain on his Tesla stock in just over two years.

The software giant's technology chief and former CEO purchased the equivalent of 15 million shares in Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company before joining its board in December 2018.

Tesla's stock price has surged about 1,200% since then, boosting the value of Ellison's roughly 1.6% stake from around $1 billion to more than $13 billion.

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Ellison is Tesla's second-biggest individual shareholder after Musk. He revealed his bet on the automaker was his second-largest investment during a call with Oracle analysts in October 2018.

The tech billionaire also described Musk and himself as "very close friends" on the call. Indeed, Musk flew to Lanai - Ellison's Hawaiian island - last month to get some advice from the Oracle executive.

Ellison's Tesla wager has helped lift his fortune to about $81 billion, making him the 10th-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk tops the ranking with a net worth north of $200 billion.

Here's a chart showing Tesla's astounding stock-price gain over the past three years: