The 63-year-old executive’s fortune rose to $3.4 billion, up from $3 billion at the start of trading on Wednesday, as Oracle’s shares jumped nearly 40 percent. The surge followed the company’s report revealing a massive $455 billion in remaining performance obligations, a measure of contracted revenue yet to be recognized.
Oracle’s co-founder Larry Ellison saw an even more dramatic boost, with his wealth climbing to an estimated $386.3 billion, placing him as the second-richest person globally.
Catz attributed Oracle’s extraordinary growth to its rapidly expanding cloud infrastructure business and major contracts with leading technology firms. “We have signed significant cloud agreements with many of the most important players in technology, and this is only the beginning,” she said in a company earnings call.
A Career Defined by Bold Strategy
Born in Israel and raised in Massachusetts, Catz graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania before earning a law degree from the same institution. After more than a decade on Wall Street as an investment banker, she joined Oracle in 1999 as a senior vice president. Within a year she was on the board of directors, and by 2004 she had become president.
She is widely credited for spearheading Oracle’s aggressive mergers and acquisitions strategy, overseeing deals such as the $10.3 billion purchase of PeopleSoft in 2004 and the $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009—both of which reshaped the software industry.
Catz became co-CEO alongside Mark Hurd in 2014, before assuming sole leadership after his death in 2019. Under her tenure, Oracle’s share price has risen more than 800 percent, marking one of the most successful leadership runs in the company’s history.
One of the Highest-Paid CEOs
Safra Catz has consistently ranked among the highest-paid chief executives in the United States. In 2022, her total compensation reached $138 million, largely through stock options. In 2024, she earned nearly $6.5 million in compensation, according to company filings.
Beyond Oracle, she has been active in U.S. public policy, serving on the Homeland Security Advisory Council alongside prominent business leaders from across industries.
Analysts Optimistic on Oracle’s Future
Wall Street analysts have reacted with astonishment to Oracle’s results, with several predicting continued momentum in its share price driven by cloud-related growth. Analysts noted that Oracle’s latest quarter represents one of the strongest in its history, with expectations of further multibillion-dollar deals in the months ahead.
Catz described the results as “an astonishing quarter” and signaled that Oracle is well positioned to remain at the forefront of enterprise cloud computing for years to come.
