Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an Americancentibillionaire[2][3] businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded the software companyOracle Corporation. He was Oracle'sCEO from 1977 to 2014 and is now itsCTO andexecutive chair. According toForbes, as of 2026, Ellison's estimated net worth is $245.3 billion, making him the world's third-richest person.[4]
On September 10, 2025, Ellison was briefly the wealthiest person in the world after an increase in Oracle stock price, with an estimated net worth of US$393 billion. Ellison is also known for his ownership of 98 percent of the land onLanai, the sixth-largest of theHawaiian Islands.[5]
Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, inNew York City. His mother, Florence Spellman, isJewish.[6][7] His biological father was an Italian-AmericanUnited States Army Air Corps pilot. After Ellison contractedpneumonia at the age of nine months, Spellman gave him to her aunt and uncle for adoption.[7] Ellison did not meet Spellman again until he was 48.[8]
Ellison moved with his adoptive parents to Chicago'sSouth Shore, at that time a primarily Jewish middle-class neighborhood.[citation needed] He remembers his adoptive mother, Lillian Spellman Ellison,[9] as warm and loving. He found his adoptive father, Louis Ellison, to be austere, unsupportive, and often distant. A government employee who had made a small fortune in Chicago real estate, only to lose it during theGreat Depression, Louis had chosen his last name to honorEllis Island, his point of entry into the United States.[7]
Ellison was raised in aReform Jewish home by his adoptive parents, who attended synagogue regularly, but he remained a religious skeptic. At age 13, Ellison refused to have abar mitzvah celebration.[10] Ellison said: "While I think I am religious in one sense, the particular dogmas of Judaism are not dogmas I subscribe to. I don't believe that they are real. They're interesting stories. They're interesting mythology, and I certainly respect people who believe these are literally true, but I don't. I see no evidence for this stuff."[11] Ellison says that his fondness forIsrael is not connected to religious sentiments but rather due to Israelis' innovative spirit in the technology sector.[12]
Ellison attendedSouth Shore High School in Chicago,[13] was admitted to theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and enrolled as apre-med student.[13] At the university, he was named science student of the year.[14][15] He withdrew without taking final exams after his sophomore year because his adoptive mother had just died. After spending the summer of 1966 in California, he then attended theUniversity of Chicago for one term, where he studiedphysics and mathematics[13] and also first encounteredcomputer design. He then moved toBerkeley, California, and began his career as a computer programmer for several different companies.[9]
During the 1970s, after a brief stint atAmdahl Corporation, Ellison began working forAmpex Corporation. His first project included a database for theCIA, code-named "Oracle".[16][17] Ellison was inspired by a paper written byEdgar F. Codd onrelational database systems called "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks".[18] In 1977, Ellison, Ed Oates and Bruce Scott joined Software Development Laboratories (SDL) several months after it was founded by Ellison's supervisor at Ampex, Bob Miner. They invested $2,000 (equivalent to $10,378 in 2024), of which $1,200 (equivalent to $6,227 in 2024) was Ellison's.[19] Although he had strong technical skills—Ellison was not officially categorized as a developer until about 1984—the founders decided that as the others were stronger technically, he would run sales.[20]
In 1979, the company renamed itself Relational Software, Inc. (RSI). Ellison had heard about theIBM System R database, also based on Codd's theories, and wanted Oracle to achieve compatibility with it, but IBM made this impossible by refusing to share System R's error codes.[21] The initial release of theOracle Database in 1979 was called Oracle version 2; there was no Oracle version 1.[22] In 1983, the company officially became Oracle Systems Corporation after its flagship product. In 1990, Oracle laid off 10% of its workforce (about 400 people) because it was losing money.[23] This crisis, which almost resulted in the company's bankruptcy, came about because of Oracle's "up-front" marketing strategy, in which sales people urged potential customers to buy the largest possible amount of software all at once. The sales people then booked the value of future license sales in the current quarter, thereby increasing their bonuses. This became a problem when the future sales failed to materialize. Oracle eventually had to restate its earnings twice, and had to settleclass-action lawsuits arising from its having overstated its earnings. Ellison later said that Oracle had made "an incredible business mistake".[24]
Although IBM dominated the mainframe relational database market with itsDB2 andSQL/DS database products, it delayed entering the market for a relational database onUnix andWindows operating systems. This left the door open forSybase, Oracle,Ingres,Informix, and eventuallyMicrosoft to dominate mid-range systems and microcomputers. Around this time, Oracle fell behind Sybase. From 1990 to 1993, Sybase was the fastest-growing database company and the database industry's darling vendor. In 1993, Sybase sold the rights to its database software running under the Windows operating system to Microsoft Corporation, which now markets it under the name "SQL Server". Sybase soon fell victim tomerger mania; its 1996 merger with Powersoft resulted in a loss of focus on its core database technology.
In 1990, Ellison was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Harvard University.[25]
In 1994, Informix overtook Sybase and became Oracle's most important rival. The intense war between Informix CEO Phil White and Ellison was front-page Silicon Valley news for three years. In April 1997, Informix announced a major revenue shortfall and earnings restatements. White eventually landed in jail. Also in 1997, Ellison was made a director ofApple Computer afterSteve Jobs returned to the company. Ellison resigned from that position in 2002.
With the defeat of Informix and Sybase, Oracle enjoyed industry dominance until the rise of Microsoft SQL Server in the late 1990s and IBM's acquisition of Informix Software in 2001 to complement itsDB2 database. By 2013 Oracle's main competition for new database licenses on UNIX,Linux, and Windows operating systems came from IBM's DB2 and from Microsoft SQL Server. IBM's DB2 still dominated themainframe database market.
In 2005, Ellison agreed to settle a four-year-old insider-trading lawsuit by offering to pay $100 million (equivalent to $160,000,000 in 2024) to charity in Oracle's name.[26]
In 2005, Oracle Corporation paid Ellison a $975,000 salary (equivalent to $1,600,000 in 2024), a $6,500,000 bonus (equivalent to $10,000,000 in 2024), and other compensation of $955,100 (equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2024).[27] In 2007, Ellison earned a total compensation of $61,180,524 (equivalent to $93,000,000 in 2024), which included a base salary of $1,000,000 (equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2024), a cash bonus of $8,369,000 (equivalent to $13,000,000 in 2024), and options granted of $50,087,100 (equivalent to $76,000,000 in 2024).[28] In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $84,598,700 (equivalent to $124,000,000 in 2024), which included a base salary of $1,000,000 (equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2024), a cash bonus of $10,779,000 (equivalent to $16,000,000 in 2024), no stock grants, and options granted of $71,372,700 (equivalent to $100,000,000 in 2024).[29] In the year ending May 31, 2009, he made $56.8 million (equivalent to $83,000,000 in 2024).[30]
In July 2009, for the fourth year in a row, Oracle's board awarded Ellison another 7 million stock options.[33] In August 2009, it was reported that Ellison would be paid only$1 for his base salary for the fiscal year 2010, down from the $1,000,000 (equivalent to $1,500,000 in 2024) he was paid in fiscal 2009.[30][34]
After approval from regulators in theUnited States and theEuropean Union, Oracle acquired its competitor Sun Microsystems on January 21, 2010.[35] The Sun acquisition also gave Oracle control of the popularMySQL open source database, which Sun had acquired in 2008.[36] In August 2010, Ellison denounced Hewlett-Packard's board for firing CEOMark Hurd, writing: "The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago." Ellison and Hurd were close personal friends.[37] In September, Oracle hired Hurd as co-president alongsideSafra Catz. Ellison remained in his CEO role.[38]
In March 2010, theForbeslist of billionaires ranked Ellison as the sixth-richest person in the world and as the third-richest American, with an estimated net worth of over $28 billion (equivalent to $40,000,000,000 in 2024).[31] In July 2010,The Wall Street Journal reported that Ellison was the highest-paid executive in the last decade, collecting a total compensation of US$1.84 billion (equivalent to $3,000,000,000 in 2024).[41] In September 2011, Ellison was listed on theForbes list of billionaires as the fifth richest man in the world and was still the third richest American, with a net worth of about $36.5 billion (equivalent to $51,000,000,000 in 2024). In September 2012, Ellison was again listed on theForbes list of billionaires as the third richest American citizen with a net worth of $44 billion (equivalent to $60,000,000,000 in 2024). In October 2012, he was listed as the eighth-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[42]
Ellison owns stakes inSalesforce.com,NetSuite,Quark Biotechnology Inc. andAstex Pharmaceuticals.[43][44] In June 2012, Ellison agreed to buy 98 percent of the Hawaiian island ofLānaʻi fromDavid H. Murdock's company,Castle & Cooke. The price was reported to be between $500 million (equivalent to $680,000,000 in 2024) and $600 million (equivalent to $820,000,000 in 2024).[45] In 2013, according toThe Wall Street Journal, Ellison earned $94.6 million (equivalent to $130,000,000 in 2024).[46] On September 18, 2014, Ellison appointedMark Hurd to CEO of Oracle from his former position as president;Safra Catz was also made CEO, moving from her former role as CFO. Ellison assumed the positions of chief technology officer and executive chairman.[47][48]
In November 2016, Oracle bought NetSuite for $9.3 billion (equivalent to $12,000,000,000 in 2024). Ellison owned 35% of NetSuite at the time of the purchase making him $3.5 billion personally (equivalent to $4,600,000,000 in 2024).[49]
In 2017,Forbes estimated that Ellison was the 4th-richest person in the technology sector.[50]
In June 2018, Ellison's net worth was about $54.5 billion (equivalent to $68,000,000,000 in 2024), according toForbes.[51]
In December 2018, Ellison became a director on the board ofTesla, Inc., after purchasing 3 million shares earlier that year.[52][53] Ellison left the Tesla board in August 2022.[54]
In June 2020, Ellison was reported to be the seventh-wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $66.8 billion (equivalent to $81,000,000,000 in 2024).[55]
In late 2022, Ellison owned 42.9% of the shares of Oracle Corporation,[56] and in June 2023, he owned 1.4% of the shares of Tesla.[57]
Ellison's software startup, Project Ronin, which he co-founded withDavid Agus and Dave Hodgson, closed in 2024. The company intended to transform cancer care using products intended to quickly analyze data within electronic medical records systems.[58][59]
In August 2025, Ellison provided funding through his family trust for themerger of Paramount Global with his son David's Skydance Media. The trust remains the largest owner of the new company's shares while David retains operational control.[60] On September 10, 2025, Ellison was briefly the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $393 billion.[61][62]
Ellison (right) with Secretary of StateMike Pompeo in 2020
Ellison was critical ofNSA whistle-blowerEdward Snowden, saying, "Snowden had yet to identify a single person who had been 'wrongly injured' by the NSA's data collection".[63] In 2012, he donated to bothDemocratic andRepublican politicians,[64] and in late 2014 hosted Republican senatorRand Paul at a fundraiser at his home.[65][66]
Since 2016, Ellison has been supporting Republicans;[67] he was one of the top donors ($4 million by February 2016, equivalent to $5,000,000 in 2024) to Conservative Solutions PAC, a superPAC supportingMarco Rubio's 2016 presidential bid.[68] He has called Rubio acentrist.[67] In 2020, Ellison allowed presidentDonald Trump to have a fundraiser at hisRancho Mirage estate,[69][70] but Ellison was not present.[71] In January 2022, Ellison donated $15 million (equivalent to $16,000,000 in 2024) to the Opportunity Matters Fund super PAC associated with SenatorTim Scott, one of the biggest financial contributions of the2022 midterm elections.[72]
In 2017, Ellison donated $16.6 million (equivalent to $21,300,000 in 2024) to theFriends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), saying, "Since Israel's founding, we have called on the brave men and women of the IDF to defend our home". This was the largest donation in the organization's history.[75][76]
In 2019, Ellison helped fund an archaeological excavation project inEast Jerusalem that was criticized byPalestinians, Israeli peace activists, and somearchaeologists.[77][78][79] A $1 billion (equivalent to $1,200,000,000 in 2024) lawsuit was filed in 2019 against several Israel supporters, including Ellison, accusing them of conspiring toethnically cleanse Palestinians from Israeli-occupied territories, committingwar crimes, and funding genocide.[80][81] The case was dismissed in February 2024.[82]
Ellison married Adda Quinn in 1967.[87] They divorced in 1974.[88]
Ellison married Nancy Wheeler Jenkins shortly after meeting her in late 1976.[89] In 1978, they divorced and Wheeler sold back her shares in Oracle (SDL at the time) to Ellison for $500.[90]
Ellison was married to Barbara Boothe from 1983 to 1986.[91] Boothe was a former receptionist at Oracle (RSI at the time).[92] They had two children,David andMegan, who were (as of 2024) film producers atSkydance Media andAnnapurna Pictures, respectively.[93][a]
On December 18, 2003, Ellison married Melanie Craft, a romance novelist, at his Woodside estate. Ellison's friendSteve Jobs, former CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc., was the official wedding photographer,[95] and RepresentativeTom Lantos officiated. They divorced in 2010.[96]
In 2015, Ellison married Nikita Kahn. They separated in December 2016[97] and their divorce was finalized in 2020.[98]
Ellison has stated he abstains from alcohol and drugs. He has said, "I can't stand anything that clouds my mind."[103][104] He is also known for his strict diet and exercise regimen.[105]
Ellison owns many exotic cars, including aLexus LFA,[106] anAudi R8, and aMcLaren F1. His favorite was theAcura NSX, which he gave as gifts each year during its production.[44]
Ellison styled his estimated $110 millionWoodside, California, estate afterfeudal Japanesearchitecture, complete with a man-made 2.3-acre (0.93 ha) lake and an extensiveseismic retrofit.[109] In 2004 and 2005 he purchased more than 12 properties inMalibu, California, worth more than $180 million. The $65 million Ellison spent on five contiguous lots at Malibu's Carbon Beach made this the most costly residential transaction in U.S. history until bankerRonald Perelman sold hisPalm Beach, Florida, compound for $70 million later that year.[110] The entertainment system at hisPacific Heights home cost $1 million, and includes a rock concert-sized video projector at one end of a drained swimming pool, using the gaping hole as a giant subwoofer.[111][112]
In 2011, he purchased the 249-acre Porcupine Creek Estate and private golf course inRancho Mirage, California for $42.9 million.[113] The property was formerly the home ofYellowstone Club founders Edra andTim Blixseth, and was sold to Ellison by creditors following their divorce and bankruptcy.[114]
In 2022, Ellison bought a 22-acre property inManalapan, Florida, for $173 million. He purchased it fromJim Clark, who in turn had acquired it from theZiff family. It is the most expensive residential property purchase in Florida history.[115]
In December 2020, he left California and moved to the island ofLānaʻi, where he owns 98 percent of the land.[116] In subsequent years, tensions have been reported between Ellison's businesses on the island and some residents over housing and access. A 2022 Bloomberg feature described Ellison as a contemporary king of Lānaʻi. The report said many Lānaʻi residents both work for and rent from Ellison's companies, with commercial tenants commonly on short 30-day leases and some residential leases including provisions allowing termination of tenancy upon loss of employment.[117][118]
In August 2022,Maui County warned Ellison's Lānaʻi Resorts not to block public access to Hulopoʻe Beach Park, but the park's gate was closed anyway. The company said the closure was due to flooding, but local residents disputed that and the duration of the closure.[119] In 2023, the Ellison-owned Lānaʻi Water Company put a significant multiyear rate increase before regulators citing infrastructure and operating costs. This drew concern about affordability from some customers.[120]
Ellison is a licensed pilot and has owned several aircraft.[8] In 1999, the city ofSan Jose, California, cited him for violating itslimits on late-night takeoffs and landings fromSan Jose Mineta International Airport by planes weighing more than 75,000 pounds (34,019 kg). In January 2000, Ellison sued over the interpretation of the airport rule, contending that hisGulfstream V aircraft "is certified by the manufacturer to fly at two weights: 75,000 pounds, and at 90,000 pounds for heavier loads or long flights requiring more fuel. But the pilot only lands the plane in San Jose when it weighs 75,000 pounds or less, and has the logs to prove it."[121] US District JudgeJeremy Fogel ruled in Ellison's favor in June 2001, calling for a waiver for Ellison's jet, but did not invalidate the curfew.[122]
Ellison also owns at least two military jets: the Italian training aircraftSIAI-Marchetti S.211 and a decommissioned Soviet fighterMiG-29, which the US government has refused him permission to import.[8]
In 2017, Ellison funded a farming company called Sensei Ag with a promise to use AI, robotics, and software to remake the way food was produced. A Wall Street Journal report in February 2025 criticized the effort, saying the endeavor was not keeping its promise due to basic mistakes in technology, leadership, and access to know-how.[126]
With the economic downturn of 2010, Ellison sold his share ofRising Sun, the12th largestyacht in the world, makingDavid Geffen the sole owner.[129] The vessel is 453 feet (138 metres) long,[130] and reportedly cost over $200million to build. He downsized toMusashi, a 288-foot (88-metre) yacht built byFeadship.[131]
In 2002, Ellison's Oracle's team introduced kite yachting into the America's Cup environment. Kite sail flying lasting about thirty minutes was achieved during testing in New Zealand.[133]
BMW Oracle Racing was the "Challenger of Record" on behalf of theGolden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco for the2007 America's Cup inValencia, Spain, until eliminated from the2007 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger-selection series in the semi-finals. On February 14, 2010, Ellison's yachtUSA 17 won the second race (in the best of three "deed of gift" series) of the33rd America's Cup, after winning the first race two days earlier. Securing a historic victory, Ellison and his BMW Oracle team became the first challengers to win a "deed of gift" match. The Cup returned to American shores for the first time since 1995. Ellison served as a crew member in the second race.[134] Previously, Ellison had filed several legal challenges, through theGolden Gate Yacht Club, against the way thatErnesto Bertarelli (also one of the world's richest men) proposed to organize the33rd America's Cup following the 2007 victory of Bertarelli's teamAlinghi.[134][135] The races were finally held[clarification needed] in February 2010 in Valencia.
On September 25, 2013, Ellison's Oracle Team USA defeatedEmirates Team New Zealand to win the34th America's Cup inSan Francisco Bay, California.[136] Oracle Team USA had been penalized two points in the final for cheating by some team members during the America's Cup World Series warm-up events.[137] The Oracle team came from a 1–8 deficit to win 9–8, in what has been called "one of the greatest comebacks in sports history".[138]
In 2019, Ellison, in conjunction withRussell Coutts, started theSailGP international racing series.[139] The series usedF50 foiling catamarans, the fastest class of boat in history with regattas held across the globe. Ellison committed to five years of funding to support the series until it could become self-sustaining. The first season was successful with global audiences of over 1.8 billion.[140][141][142]
In 1992, Ellison shattered his elbow in a high-speed bicycle crash. After receiving treatment atUniversity of California, Davis, Ellison donated $5 million to seed the Lawrence J. Ellison Musculo-Skeletal Research Center. In 1998, the Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center opened on theSacramento campus of theUC Davis Medical Center.[143]
To settle a 2001insider trading lawsuit arising from his selling nearly $1 billion of Oracle stock, a court allowed Ellison to donate $100 million to his own charitable foundation without admitting wrongdoing. A California judge refused to allow Oracle to pay Ellison's legal fees of $24 million. Ellison's lawyer had argued that if Ellison were to pay the fees, that could be construed as an admission of guilt. His charitable donations toStanford University raised questions about the independence of two Stanford professors who evaluated the case's merits for Oracle.[144]
In 2001, in response to theSeptember 11 attacks, Ellison made a controversial offer to donate software to the federal government[145] that would have enabled it to build and run a national identification database and issueID cards.[146]
According toForbes's 2004 list of charitable donations made by the wealthiest 400 Americans, Ellison had donated[when?] $151,092,103, about 1% of his estimated personal wealth.[147] In June 2006, he announced he would not honor an earlier pledge of $115 million toHarvard University because of the departure of former presidentLawrence Summers. Oracle spokesman Bob Wynne announced, "It was really Larry Summers' brainchild and once it looked like Larry Summers was leaving, Larry Ellison reconsidered".[148]
In 2007, Ellison pledged $500,000 to fortify acommunity centre inSderot, Israel, against rocket attacks.[149] In 2014, he donated $10 million to theFriends of the Israel Defense Forces. In 2017, he donated $16.6 million to support the construction of well-being facilities on a new campus forco-ed conscripts.[150][151]
In August 2010, a report listed Ellison as one of the 40 billionaires who had signed "The Giving Pledge".[152][153]
In May 2016, Ellison donated $200 million to theUniversity of Southern California to establish a cancer research center: the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC.[154][155] It was renamed the Ellison Institute of Technology, and an additional campus was established in Oxford, England, in 2023 with the intention of providing a scholarship program for 20 students each year.[156][58]
^Wilson, Mike (2003).The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison. Harper Business. p. 19.ISBN978-0060008765.Larry was a religious skeptic from the beginning. The Ellisons, who were Jewish, attended synagogue regularly—"and dragged me along" he said. "While I think I'm religious in one sense, the particular dogmas of Judaism are not dogmas I subscribe to. I don't believe that they're real. They're interesting stories, they're wonderful mythology, and I certainly respect people who believe that these are literally true, but I don't. . . . I see no evidence for this stuff." To please his parents, Ellison tried to study the Torah, to no avail. "I couldn't make myself do it. ... I lost interest. My mind wandered in four seconds. It was an impossibility," he said.
^Weiss, Bari (October 6, 2025)."The Future of The Free Press".The Free Press. RetrievedOctober 19, 2025.[...] This morning, The Free Press is joining Paramount. [...] From day one, the promise—and the business proposition—of this publication was simple: [...] We would seek the truth [...] we would treat readers like adults [...] many people told us this was no longer possible. That the premise of a media company built on trust rather than partisanship was [...] a fantasy [...] I'll continue to lead this incredible [TheFP] community [...] remaining CEO and editor-in-chief. But [...] As of today, I am editor-in-chief ofCBS News [...] What does this mean for CBS News? It means a redoubled commitment to great journalism. It means building on a storied legacy—and bringing that historic newsroom into 2025 and beyond. Most of all, it means working tirelessly to make sure CBS News is the most trusted news organization in the world.
We would not be doing this if we did not believe inDavid Ellison, and the entire leadership team who took over Paramount this summer. [...]
^Wiedeman, Reeves (January 12, 2026)."The Son King of Hollywood".Vulture. RetrievedJanuary 13, 2026.For years, Megan and David were Larry's only children, although he has mused about having more. Recently, he did. He and his current wife, Jolin Zhu, who is in her 30s, have been quietly raising four young children. "He's a much better father this time around, and he freely admits that," a friend of Larry's told me.
^ab"BMW Oracle wins America's Cup".ESPN. February 14, 2010.Archived from the original on February 17, 2010. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2010.Ellison and Kostecki were the only Americans on BMW Oracle's crew for the clincher.
^Compare:"The Oracle of National ID Cards".Wired. October 27, 2001. Archived fromthe original on October 27, 2001.An article Ellison wrote forThe Wall Street Journal is more blunt: 'The government could phase in digital ID cards to replace existing Social Security cards and driver's licenses. These new IDs should be based on a uniform standard such as credit card technology, which is harder to counterfeit than existing government IDs....'
^"Larry Ellison Biography and Interview". 1997.Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2021.Academy members Larry Ellison, United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Breyer, and best-selling author Tom Clancy in a panel discussion during the 1997 American Academy of Achievement program in Baltimore, MD.
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