Updated 2025-09-11T07:50:49Z
- Larry Ellison is the 81-year-old cofounder of Oracle.
- A surge in Oracle stock briefly made him the world's richest man on September 10.
- As of September 11, his net worth is $383 billion, placing him right behind Elon Musk.
Larry Ellison is the founder and chief technology officer of the software giant Oracle.
Now, he's also the world's second-wealthiest man, with a net worth of $383 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Ellison briefly claimed the title of the world's richest person on Wednesday, September 10, when his net worth shot up by $101 billion, hitting $393 billion.
The growth was driven by a huge move in Oracle stock. Oracle shares soared as much as 43% that day, their biggest single-day gain since 1992, after the company reported quarterly results and delivered a blockbuster outlook for its AI-powered cloud business.
Tesla chief Elon Musk has since resumed his place at the top of the list, with a $384 billion net worth.
Ellison, now 81, started Oracle in 1977. Decades later, despite living in Hawaii, he's still one of the top dogs in Silicon Valley.
Here's a look at the life and career of Ellison so far.
Early life
Ellison was born in the Bronx on August 17, 1944, to a single mother, Florence Spellman. Raised in Chicago's South Side, he attended the University of Illinois but dropped out after his adoptive mother died. He later attended University of Chicago for a semester, but also dropped out.
In 1966, at 22, he moved to Berkeley, California, near the emerging tech hub of Silicon Valley. He worked a series of jobs, including at Wells Fargo and mainframe maker Amdahl, where he picked up programming skills.
The birth of Oracle
Oracle was founded in 1977 with $2,000, inspired by IBM scientist Edgar F. Codd's revolutionary idea of relational databases. Its first product was dubbed Version 2. After briefly rebranding as Relational Software Inc., the company became Oracle Systems in 1982 and went public in 1986 with $55 million in revenue.
Growth was rapid, but in 1990, Oracle nearly went bankrupt after revenue miscalculations led to losses and layoffs. By 1992, the launch of Oracle7 put the company back on track. Throughout the '90s, Oracle sparred with rivals like Informix and benefited from the dot-com boom, supplying databases to countless startups.
Flush with cash, Oracle went on an acquisition spree, buying PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion in 2005 and Sun Microsystems in 2010, gaining control of key technologies like MySQL. That same year, Ellison recruited Mark Hurd alongside Safra Catz, who later became co-CEOs.
Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014, becoming chairman and chief technology officer.
His fortune and how he spends it
Ellison, Oracle's largest shareholder, has used his fortune to fuel a life of high-profile investments, philanthropy, and headline-making purchases.
He races yachts, sails, and partially financed the BMW Oracle USA team that won the 2010 America's Cup.
He's also built a collection of Richard Mille watches worth hundreds of thousands to millions each. In 2009, he purchased the Indian Wells tennis tournament for $100 million.
In 2012, he bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where he later moved full-time, building real estate, a wellness retreat, and backing a farming startup. His real estate portfolio also includes mansions in Malibu, Palm Beach, and Rhode Island.
He has long been an active investor. An early backer of Salesforce, he also invested in Leapfrog and the ill-fated Theranos.
One of his most lucrative bets was NetSuite: A $125 million stake in 1998 turned into a $3.5 billion windfall when Oracle acquired the company in 2016.
Ellison also served on Apple's board in the late 1990s and joined Tesla's board in 2018 before stepping down in 2022.
Family
Ellison's daughter, Megan, is an Oscar-nominated film producer and the founder of Annapurna Pictures. The company has produced films like "Zero Dark Thirty" and "American Hustle."
Ellison's son, David, is also in the film business. His company, Skydance Media, has produced movies like "Terminator: Dark Fate" and films in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.
After months of discussions in 2024, Skydance Media and Paramount agreed to a deal, creating Paramount Skydance. David is the CEO.
Philanthropy
Ellison signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, vowing to give away 95% of his fortune.
He's donated millions, including $200 million to a USC cancer center in 2016, which was eventually renamed the Ellison Institute of Technology. The EIT announced an Oxford campus in 2023.
He's also been visible during Donald Trump's second term as president.
Ellison appeared alongside Sam Altman of OpenAI and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank at Trump's press conference the day after the president's inauguration in January 2024 to announce Project Stargate, a joint venture that would see up to $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure in the US.
"He's sort of CEO of everything. He's an amazing man," Trump said as he introduced Ellison, who is seen as his longtime ally.
