Larry Ellison: Oracle co-founder who overtook Musk as world’s richest person | US news
Larry Ellison, the co-founder of the Oracle software company, had a happy new year. His friend Donald Trump is at the White House, his son David Ellison took over the legendary media company CBS, and Wednesday, he passed his boyfriend Elon Musk to win the title of “the richest man in the world”.
The Oracle stock was unleashed with the news, pushing its even higher fortune. Ellison’s net value has climbed up to 393 billion dollars, exceeding $ 384 billion in musk – although, as the course of Oracle action increased and dropped throughout the day, Ellison’s fortune goes closer to Musk’s net value, according to Forbes.
Ellison is not as much a familiar name as Musk, but he is largely influential in Silicon Valley and, more recently, politics. He is known for a sumptuous lifestyle filled with mega-yachts, private jets, a long list of women and possession of the whole Hawaiian island of Lanai.
The 81-year-old Mega-Millionaire made a fortune in the development of software to return in the 1970s. He co-founded Oracle after winning a two-year contract to build a database for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States Government, according to the Academy of Success. Oracle has become a technology giant creating software for fortune companies 500 around the world, and more recently in Cloud Computing. The advent of artificial intelligence was a boon for the company because it has concluded lucrative agreements with Openai, the Chatgpt manufacturer.
“AI is a much more important affair than the industrial revolution, electricity and everything that has been preceded,” said Ellison, praising technology, in an interview with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in February.
Ellison was the CEO of Oracle for 37 years, then transferred in 2014 to the role of director of technology. He still runs the board of directors and has more than 40% of the company, which has moved its head office at Silicon Valley in Austin, Texas, in 2020.
With Oracle, Ellison sat on the board of directors of Tesla from 2018 to 2022 and has a participation in Musk’s Electric Car Company. According to Forbes, it also holds almost 50% of the conglomerate of media newly created Paramount Skydance, which is led by his son David. The business properties include CBS, MTV, paramount pictures and more. The young Ellison said that the media company would not address political parties. However, he is about to bring Bari Weiss, the polarizing anti-reveilling champion who co-founded the free press, to help lead CBS News.
Ellison’s links with Trump and Netanyahu
Ellison has a history of a decade with the Republican Party and a close relationship with Trump which dates back to the president’s first mandate. Ellison frequented Trump’s Mar-A-Lago complex for dinners and met him in the oval office. As Trump has repeatedly postponed compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court to prohibit Tiktok if he is not sold, Oracle has become the principal buyer of the popular social media app.
“In the case of Larry, Larry Ellison, it is far beyond technology, in a way CEO of everything,” said Trump at a press conference one day after his inauguration. “He is an incredible man and an incredible business person.”
Ellison is also close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has made a strong donation to the Israeli army through non -profit friends of Israeli defense forces. In 2017, it gave the organization its greatest donation at the time – $ 16.6 million. Oracle did not answer questions from the Guardian asking if Ellison has made a donation more recently.
Ellison welcomed Netanyahu and other dignitaries and celebrities in her enormous field on Lanai, according to Bloomberg. It bought 98% of the island in 2012 and has since created an exclusive seaside resort of Luxe Four Seasons and launched a hydroponic farm that cultivates lettuce and other greens. Lanai local residents told Bloomberg that they had rushed to keep their little soil when they had seen their island transforming an outpost sleeping with a destination for ultra-rich.
Musk, the friend of Ellison and Rival for “the richest man in the world”, is a frequent guest on Lanai and calls the co-founder of Oracle his mentor, according to a biography on Musk by Walter Isaacson. Earlier this year, during a podcast with Texas Ted Cruz senator, Musk was asked who was the most intelligent guy he ever met.
“Larry Ellison is very intelligent,” said Musk. “I would say that Larry Ellison is one of the most intelligent people.”
