Oracle Corp chairman’s faith in his friend, Elon Musk, gets rewarded

Larry Ellison’s faith in Tesla Inc. and his friend Elon Musk is being rewarded. The Oracle Corp. chairman bought 3 million shares of the electric-vehicle maker before joining Tesla’s board in December 2018. The stake — worth $1 billion at the time — is now worth more than $1.6 billion. The stock has surged 25% in just the first two weeks of 2020 as fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries exceeded estimates and Musk started handing over locally assembled cars to customers in China.

For most of 2019, Ellison’s investment was floundering as Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, bounced from crisis to crisis and Wall Street cast skepticism on consumer demand. On the day Ellison’s holding and his appointment to the board were disclosed, the shares closed at $333.87. By June, they had plunged to a low $176.99. On Tuesday, the stock rose as much as 4.3% at the open to a new intraday high of $547.41.