What is the most money ever made in a day
Executive summary
The single biggest “amount of money made in a day” on record, as measured by change in corporate market capitalization, is Nvidia’s roughly $330 billion one-day jump in market value on 31 July/1 August 2024 (reports vary by timezone), which outlets described as the largest daily gain in Wall Street history [1] [2]. If the question means a single person’s reported one‑day wealth increase, Bloomberg‑tracked moves show Oracle co‑founder Larry Ellison gained roughly $88–89 billion in one trading day — the largest one‑day jump in a billionaire wealth index [3] [4].
1. What the headline number is — corporate market value records
The dominant answer from financial reporting treats “most money made in a day” as the change in a public company’s market capitalization: Al Jazeera and Visual Capitalist cite Nvidia’s one‑session surge that added about $330 billion to its market value, eclipsing earlier records [1] [2]. That jump followed fresh optimism about AI demand and company results and was reported as the biggest single‑day market‑cap increase in US market history [1].
2. Other corporate one‑day megagains for context
Historically, other companies have posted massive one‑day market‑cap swings: Reuters reported Amazon’s roughly $190 billion one‑day gain after a blowout quarter in February 2022, itself beating earlier records such as Apple’s prior one‑day top gain [5]. Visual Capitalist and Charlie Bilello’s compilations show multiple tech and large‑cap firms periodically producing the largest dollar swings, underscoring that the record is driven by scale — the bigger the company, the bigger an absolute dollar move can be [2].
3. Individual wealth spikes — the billionaire lens
When the question is framed as money “made” by a person in a day, billionaires’ net worth trackers provide the answer: Bloomberg and related outlets reported Larry Ellison’s roughly $88–89 billion one‑day gain tied to Oracle’s dramatic stock rally, which briefly made him the world’s richest person and was described as the biggest one‑day increase recorded by Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index [3] [4]. Previous records included multi‑tens‑of‑billions one‑day swings for figures like Elon Musk, but Ellison’s surge set a new high in that metric [4].
4. Why these headlines can be misleading — market cap vs. realized cash
All of these record numbers are changes in headline metrics — market capitalization or net‑worth indices — not cash deposited into bank accounts: a $330 billion market‑cap rise means the notional value investors assign to outstanding shares went up, not that the company received $330 billion in cash, and billionaires’ paper wealth shifts reflect share price moves rather than realized proceeds unless they sell stock [1] [3]. The sources do not provide examples of a company or individual actually taking home those headline amounts in cash on a single calendar day, and reporting does not claim that paper gains were converted into realized earnings in that period [1] [3].
5. Definitions and limits of the reporting — what the sources do and don’t claim
The available reporting explicitly frames records as market‑value or index‑tracked wealth swings (Al Jazeera, Visual Capitalist, Reuters, Economic Times/Billionaire Reporter summaries), and does not document a case where a firm or person physically “made” and realized the full headline amount in cash during one trading day; that distinction is critical and the sources do not supply contrary evidence [1] [2] [5] [3]. If “most money ever made in a day” were redefined — for example, as cash revenue, one‑day profit, or proceeds from a single transaction — the cited sources do not provide a definitive answer for those alternative measures.
6. Bottom line — the best, qualified answer from available reporting
Using the standard financial‑media definitions, the record for most money “made” in a day is Nvidia’s ~ $330 billion single‑day market‑cap gain in mid‑2024; the largest single‑day wealth jump for an individual is Larry Ellison’s roughly $88–89 billion increase as tracked by billionaire indices, while other big one‑day corporate gains (Amazon’s ~$190 billion) provide historical context — but none of these figures equate to realized cash receipts as reported [1] [2] [5] [3] [4].