Larry Ellison

1994–2010

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 of Apple Computer after Steve 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 its DB2 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 the mainframe 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 2025) to charity in Oracle's name.

In 2005, Oracle Corporation paid Ellison a $975,000 salary, a $6,500,000 bonus, and other compensation of $955,100. In 2007, Ellison earned a total compensation of $61,180,524 (equivalent to $95,000,000 in 2025), which included a base salary of $1,000,000, a cash bonus of $8,369,000, and options granted of $50,087,100. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $84,598,700 (equivalent to $127,000,000 in 2025), which included a base salary of $1,000,000, a cash bonus of $10,779,000, no stock grants, and options granted of $71,372,700. In the year ending May 31, 2009, he made $56.8 million.

In 2006, Forbes ranked him as the richest Californian. In April 2009, after a tug-of-war with IBM and Hewlett-Packard, Oracle announced its intent to buy Sun Microsystems.

In July 2009, for the fourth year in a row, Oracle's board awarded Ellison another 7 million stock options. 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 he was paid in fiscal 2009.

Since 2010

After approval from regulators in the United States and the European Union, Oracle acquired its competitor Sun Microsystems on January 21, 2010. The Sun acquisition also gave Oracle control of the popular MySQL open source database, which Sun had acquired in 2008. In August 2010, Ellison denounced Hewlett-Packard's board for firing CEO Mark 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. In September, Oracle hired Hurd as co-president alongside Safra Catz. Ellison remained in his CEO role.

Ellison was an early investor in Theranos. He is played by Hart Bochner in the 2022 miniseries The Dropout, about Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes.

In March 2010, the Forbes list 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. 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. In September 2011, Ellison was listed on the Forbes 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. In September 2012, Ellison was again listed on the Forbes list of billionaires as the third richest American citizen with a net worth of $44 billion. In October 2012, he was listed as the eighth-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ellison owns stakes in Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology Inc. and Astex Pharmaceuticals. In June 2012, Ellison agreed to buy 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi from David H. Murdock's company, Castle & Cooke. The price was reported to be between $500 million and $600 million. In 2013, according to The Wall Street Journal, Ellison earned $94.6 million. On September 18, 2014, Ellison appointed Mark 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.

In November 2016, Oracle bought NetSuite for $9.3 billion. Ellison owned 35% of NetSuite at the time of the purchase making him $3.5 billion personally.

In 2017, Forbes estimated that Ellison was the 4th-richest person in the technology sector.

In June 2018, Ellison's net worth was about $54.5 billion, according to Forbes.

In December 2018, Ellison became a director on the board of Tesla, Inc., after purchasing 3 million shares earlier that year. Ellison left the Tesla board in August 2022.

In June 2020, Ellison was reported to be the seventh-wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $66.8 billion.

In late 2022, Ellison owned 42.9% of the shares of Oracle Corporation, and in June 2023, he owned 1.4% of the shares of Tesla.

Ellison's software startup, Project Ronin, which he co-founded with David 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.

In August 2025, Ellison provided funding through his family trust for the merger 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. On September 10, 2025, Ellison was briefly the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $393 billion.

In 2026, President Trump appointed Ellison to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Health

Ellison has said he abstains from alcohol and drugs because he "can't stand anything that clouds my mind". He is also known for his strict diet and exercise regimen.

Cars

Ellison owns many exotic cars, including a Lexus LFA, an Audi R8, and a McLaren F1. His favorite was the Acura NSX, which he gave as gifts each year during its production.

Art

Ellison owns at least four Vincent van Gogh paintings. His collection includes Bridge across the Seine at Asnières.

Homes

In 2004, Ellison spent an estimated $200 million to create a Woodside, California, estate styled after feudal Japanese architecture, complete with a man-made 2.3-acre (0.93 ha) lake and an extensive seismic retrofit. In 2004 and 2005 he purchased more than 12 properties in Malibu, 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 at the time. The entertainment system at his Pacific 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.

In early 2010, Ellison purchased the Astors' Beechwood Mansion—formerly the summer home of the Astor family—in Newport, Rhode Island, for $10.5 million.

In 2011, he purchased the 249-acre Porcupine Creek Estate and private golf course in Rancho Mirage, California for $42.9 million. The property was formerly the home of Yellowstone Club founders Edra and Tim Blixseth, and was sold to Ellison by creditors following their divorce and bankruptcy.

In 2022, Ellison bought a 22-acre property in Manalapan, Florida, for $173 million. He purchased it from Jim Clark, who in turn had acquired it from the Ziff brothers. It is the most expensive residential property purchase in Florida history. In 2023, he bought eight homes 30 minutes away from his Manalapan property for a total of $10 million for his family's staff. In 2023, he changed his primary residence from Lānaʻi to the Manalapan property, a 20-minute drive from President Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.

Lanai

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellison left California and moved to the island of Lānaʻi, where he owns 98 percent of the land. 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.

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. In 2023, the Ellison-owned Lānaʻi Water Company proposed to regulators a significant multiyear rate increase, citing infrastructure and operating costs, drawing concern about affordability from some customers.

Aviation

Ellison is a licensed pilot and has owned several aircraft. In 1999, the city of San Jose, California, cited him for violating its limits on late-night takeoffs and landings from San 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 his Gulfstream 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." US District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in Ellison's favor in June 2001, calling for a waiver for Ellison's jet, but did not invalidate the curfew.

Ellison also owns at least two military jets: the Italian training aircraft SIAI-Marchetti S.211 and a decommissioned Soviet MiG-29 fighter, which the US government has refused him permission to import.

Movie cameo

Ellison made a brief cameo appearance in the 2010 movie Iron Man 2.

Restaurant

In July 2013, Ellison opened a restaurant in Malibu named Nikita, the name of the woman he married in 2015. The restaurant closed in December 2014.

Farming

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.

Tennis

In 2009, Ellison purchased the Indian Wells Tennis Garden tennis facility in California's Coachella Valley and the Indian Wells Masters tournament for $100 million, and he has invested another $100 million in the club.

In 2010, Ellison purchased a 50% share of the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament.

Yachting

With the economic downturn of 2010, Ellison sold his share of Rising Sun, the 12th largest yacht in the world, making David Geffen the sole owner. The vessel is 453 feet (138 metres) long, and reportedly cost over $200 million to build. He downsized to Musashi, a 288-foot (88-metre) yacht built by Feadship.

Racing

Ellison competes in yachting through Oracle Team USA. Following success racing Maxi yachts, Ellison founded BMW Oracle Racing to compete for the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup.

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.

BMW Oracle Racing was the "Challenger of Record" on behalf of the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco for the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, until eliminated from the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger-selection series in the semi-finals. On February 14, 2010, Ellison's yacht USA 17 won the second race (in the best of three "deed of gift" series) of the 33rd 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. Previously, Ellison had filed several legal challenges, through the Golden Gate Yacht Club, against the way that Ernesto Bertarelli (also one of the world's richest men) proposed to organize the 33rd America's Cup following the 2007 victory of Bertarelli's team Alinghi. The races were finally held in February 2010 in Valencia.

On September 25, 2013, Ellison's Oracle Team USA defeated Emirates Team New Zealand to win the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco Bay, California. 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. 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".

In 2019, Ellison, in conjunction with Russell Coutts, started the SailGP international racing series. The series used F50 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.