Larry Ellison surpassed his billionaire friend Elon Musk as the world's richest person this morning after his stock in Oracle skyrocketed.

• 🤑 The 81-year-old Oracle chairman's net worth soared by over $100 billion this morning to $393 billion, putting him ahead of Musk at $385 billion as of 10am ET, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
• 📈 Ellison was No. 2 as of yesterday, having built his wealth over the course of the last five decades with the rise of his software company.

The big picture: Oracle offered a growth forecast that stunned investors late Tuesday, sending the stock through the roof, Axios' Ben Berkowitz reported.

• Much of that new revenue will come from OpenAI, WSJ reported today, through a five-year, $300 billion cloud computing deal.
• Ellison owns about 1.16 billion shares of Oracle, which closed up 36% to $328.33 today.

State of play: Musk remains immensely wealthy, but his net worth had fallen by nearly $49 billion as of Tuesday.

• Tesla stock — the biggest source of his fortune — is down nearly 14% this year.

The intrigue: Ellison served on the board of Tesla from 2018 to 2022, having joined after Musk's fight with the SEC over his infamous tweet about securing funding to take the company private.

• Musk praised Ellison this year as "one of the smartest people."

Shares of buy-now-pay-later company Klarna popped as much as 31% in the early hours of its first day of trading, after pricing its IPO at $40 a share.

• The stock settled as the day wore on, closing up 14.6% at $46.40, giving the company a $17.3 billion valuation.

Context: Klarna and shareholders had raised some $1.4 billion in its IPO, which valued the company at $15.2 billion on a fully-diluted basis.

By the numbers: It's a comeback for the company, which was once valued at $6.7 billion in its most recent down round.

• But Klarna is still valued significantly below its 2021 valuation of $45.6 billion, which had been led by SoftBank.

If you need smart, quick intel on dealmaking, get Axios Pro Deals.

💉 Novo Nordisk plans to cut 9,000 jobs by the end of 2026, representing about 11% of its global workforce. The maker of Ozempic and Wegovy is facing fierce GLP-1 competition from American drug giant Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound. (Fierce Pharma)

🥪 Potbelly agreed to sell itself to convenience store chain RaceTrac for $566 million. The sandwich shop chain has some 445 stores in the U.S. (AP)

🚗 Tricolor, a firm based primarily in the Southwest that specialized in subprime car loans, filed for bankruptcy with plans to liquidate. (Bloomberg)

🎁 Holiday sales are projected to rise at a slower pace than last year, signaling more cautious spending, according to a new forecast by Deloitte. (Axios)

Hi from the Axios newsroom retreat at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.!

• I had the opportunity this week to gather together with my national, local and Pro team colleagues to discuss how we can continue to serve readers like you.

State of play: We even got to take a few swings in the batting cage behind the visitors' dugout.

• Unfortunately, my illustrious baseball career ended in high school when kids started throwing curveballs. These days I'm relegated to slow-pitch softball, where the ball doesn't curve.

Thanks, as always, for reading — and don't hesitate to reach out to me anytime: [email protected].