Larry Ellison is an American billionaire and entrepreneur famous for founding Oracle Corporation. Oracle is a giant technology company that skyrocketed Ellison’s net worth to $135.9 billion. He is now the fourth richest person in the world. He was Oracle’s CEO from 1977 to 2014. The tech mogul owns nearly half the company at 42%.
Larry Ellison is also an investor with a 1.5% stake in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. He bought Tesla shares worth over $1 billion in 2018. His Tesla stake was at one point valued at $15 billion.
For a short while in the 1990s, Larry Ellison was the wealthiest person in the world. This was after Bill Gates’s company shares dropped due to an investigation by the Department of Justice. The probe caused Gates’s net worth to plummet.
For a long time, Larry Ellison was the highest-paid executive. He consistently earned a base salary of $90 million annually without stock sales and dividends.
He took his company, Oracle Corporations, public on March 12, 1986, a day before Microsoft went public. He owned 39% shares then. A day after Oracle’s IPO, the company had a market cap of $270 million, raising Ellsion’s net to $105.3 million.
In 1990, Oracle lost over 50% of its market cap. This pushed the company close to bankruptcy. Larry Ellison almost lost his CEO position. His net worth had dropped from $500 million to $150 million.
Would you love to learn more about this multi-billionaire tech giant? Read on as we explore Larry Ellison’s wealth. From Oracle shares to luxury investments.
Facts About Larry Ellison
| Name | Larry Ellison |
| Net worth | 135.9 billion |
| Date of birth, age | 17 August 1944, 79 years old |
| Place of birth | The Bronx, New York |
| Gender | Male |
| Marital status | Married and divorced four times |
| Larry Ellison ex-wives | Adda Quinn: 1967 to 1974 Nancy Wheeler Jenkins: 1977 to 1978 Barbara Boothe: 1983 to 1986 Melanie Craft: 2003 to 2010. |
| Children | 2; Megan Ellison and David Ellison |
| Parents | Biological mother: Florence Spellman. Adoptive parents: Lillian Ellison and Louis Ellison |
| Profession | Businessman and entrepreneur |
| Nationality | American |
| Home town | New York City |
| What is Larry Ellison known for | Lawrence Joseph Ellison is famous for founding one of the largest software corporations in the world. He founded Oracle Corporation in 1977. |
The Incredible Journey of Larry Ellison
Early Life and Ambitions
Lawrence Joseph Ellison was born on August 17, 1944. His mother, Florence Spellman, had him out of wedlock. His father was an Italian-American pilot with the U.S. Army Corps. Larry’s mother gave him up for adoption when he was only nine months old.
He lived in Chicago with his adoptive parents, Lillian Ellison and Louis Ellison. While his mother was warm and welcoming, Ellison says his adoptive father was never available. He saw his biological mother again when he was 48 years old.
He attended South Shore High School in Chicago. He later joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as a premed student. His adoptive mother died during his sophomore year. This caused him to drop out before graduation.
He enrolled at the University of Chicago and studied physics and mathematics for one term. Ellsion’s first encounter with computer design was at Chicago University. Later, he moved to California and began his tech career as a computer programmer.
Larry Ellison’s Tech Ascent
Larry Ellison teamed up with three colleagues in 1977 and created Oracle. Initially, the company was called Software Development Laboratories. The team of Bob Miner, Ed Oates, and Larry used $2,000 to start the software company that later became Oracle Corp.
By 1979, Ellison and his team built the first structured query language. Ellison’s creation was the first SQL ever used to manage large commercial relational databases. Among their early successes was the $50,000 deal with the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency hired Larry and his team to build a relational database management system. The project was code-named Oracle.
A year later, in 1979, the team released Oracle 2. The CIA was among the first buyers of the product. In 1983, when Larry decided to rebrand the company, he took the code name from his contract with the CIA and called the company Oracle.
Larry Ellison took Oracle public in 1986, a day before his software competitor Bill Gates took Microsoft public. As the executive chairman, Ellison took Oracle through a series of turmoils. One of these was the 1990 massive loss that nearly bankrupted the company.
The company restabilized in 1992 with the release of Oracle 7. Oracle 7 was a popular database software used by major corporations in the United States. Banks, huge corporations, government airlines, and hotels relied on Oracle 7. This software kept Oracle alive through the dot-com bubble burst of the mid-1990s.
Thanks to this creation, Oracle’s shares increased in price and stayed up from 1997 to 2007. The company’s stock prices kept growing even during the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another driving force of Oracle’s growth was the strategic acquisitions of software companies. These acquisitions opened the doors for Oracle to penetrate new markets. Among other companies, Ellison acquired Sun Microsystems and Hyperion Solutions.
Take a Look at A Day In The Life Of Larry Ellison ($75.2 Billion):
A Look Into Larry Ellison’s Wealth
Larry Ellison’s Oracle Shares
Most of Larry Ellison’s net worth comes from his stake in Oracle. He is the executive chairman of the company’s board and holds the largest stake in the company. Oracle shares continue to increase in price as the company partners with AI startups. As such, Ellison’s 42.9% stake has made him the fourth richest person in the world.
He is now richer than his longtime rival, Bill Gates. His net worth of $135.9 billion follows closely behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Oracle’s partnership with AI startups has investors fighting for a spot. This has increased Oracle shares by 83% in the past few months.
Real Estate and Luxury Assets
Larry Ellison owns a $110 million estate in Woodside, California. The estate is styled after feudal Japanese architecture with a seismic retrofit. The estate has a massive 2.3-acre man-made lake. In 2004 and 2005, the tech mogul acquired properties worth over $180 million in Malibu, California.
Ellison owns the Beechwood Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. He bought the mansion in 2010 for $10.5 million. The mansion was initially the summer home of the Astor family. In 2011, he paid $42.9 million on the Porcupine Creek Estate and a private golf course. The 249-acre estate is located in Rancho Mirage, California.
In 2012, Larry Ellison purchased 98% of the Island of Lanai. In 2020, he moved from his home in California to the Hawaiian Island, owning the sixth largest island in Hawaii.
Larry Ellison also owns yachts and private jets. In 2010, he sold his share of the Rising Sun to David Geffen. This made Geffen the sole owner of the world’s largest yacht. Ellison then bought a Musashi.
Larry Ellison is a licensed pilot and owns many aircraft. He has a Gulfstream V, two fighter planes, and other aircraft in his collection.
Philanthropic Ventures and How They Impact Larry Ellison’s Wealth
Larry Ellison signed the billionaire’s giving pledge to donate over 95% of his net worth to charitable causes. The billionaire investor has contributed heavily to medical research and education. He donated $200 million to the University of Southern California’s cancer research facility.
FAQs about Larry Ellison’s Net Worth
How Old Was Larry Ellison When He Became a Billionaire?
Unlike other billionaires who became billionaires in their 20s and 30s, Larry Ellison earned his first million in 1986 at 42. His long-term tech rival Bill Gates became a billionaire the same year. Larry became a billionaire seven years later at 49.
What Percent of Oracle Does Larry Ellison Own?
Larry Ellison is the fourth wealthiest man in the world. He has a net worth of $135.9 billion, most of which comes from his 42.9% stake in Oracle Corporations.
What Percent of Tesla Does Larry Ellison Own?
Larry Ellison owns a 1.5% stake in Tesla. In October 2021, his shares in the EV company were worth over $15 billion.
How Much of Larry Ellison’s Stock Did He Sell?
Larry Ellison is one of the billionaires who has sold the most stock in 2023. The tech billionaire sold 5.25 million of his shares in the software company at an average of $121.98 per share. This added $640 million to his net worth.
Final Thoughts on Larry Ellison’s Wealth and Influence
Larry Ellison is a visionary businessman and leader. He founded Oracle and built it from the ground up. It is now a leading software company in the world. He faced a huge challenge in 1990 that nearly got him ousted from the company.
Today, Oracle Corporation is among the leading software companies in the world. In 2022, the company made annual revenues of $42 billion with a market cap of $296 billion. The tech guru’s strategic growth plans included developing integrated software packages. Some of which run the world even today.
He is the fourth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $135.9 billion.
