Billionaire Larry Ellison Is Raking In The Cash On His $1 Billion Tesla Bet

Shortly before Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison joined the board of Tesla in December 2018, he bought three million shares of Tesla for about $1 billion. That stake is now worth more than $1.6 billion thanks to Tesla's rebound that has sent shares soaring as much as 25% higher in 2020 alone. That's a far cry from what Ellison's investment looked like for most of 2019 when Tesla lost around 46% in value from the beginning of the year to its low point of $178 per share in June.

Then, in October Tesla made serious gains, allowing the company to report a return to profitability in its third-quarter earnings, much to the surprise and delight of investors. That sent shares soaring another 17% in after-hours trading. Since October, Tesla's share price has doubled, thanks to good vehicle delivery numbers for 2019 and the company's new Gigafactory in Shanghai. This month, Tesla became the highest-valued U.S. automaker in history. Not long after it hit that benchmark, the company's market cap exceeded that of Ford and GM combined.

Tesla's rally wasn't done yet, most recently it broke the $500 per share threshold. As of this writing, Tesla's stock is still trading over $500, at $513.49, just off from Tuesday, January 14^th's high of $543.76.

All of this means that Ellison's $1 billion bet on Elon Musk's electric car company is now worth roughly $1.6 billion.

Year-to-date Tesla's stock is up about 25%. Larry Ellison has a net worth of $70 billion.