Larry Ellison It has become therichest man in the worldeven if only for a day: Elon Musk It has proved it by overcoming a billion ellison. The fortune of the 81 -year -old touched altitude 393 billion dollars on 10 September 2025, thanks to a Historical leap of Oracle’s actionsthe company that he himself founded almost fifty years ago, recording an increase in over 100 billion in less than 24 hours. A surged pushed by the agreement with Openaiwhich confirms the increasingly central role of Oracle in the sector ofartificial intelligence and of the data management. To understand how a child born in New York in 1944 came to dominate Wall Street and the Tech market, it is necessary to retrace part of his life, a path made of intuitions, risks, extralavous passions and the six failed weddings: all things that made him one of the most controversial and influential characters of Silicon Valley. During the article we will see not only his entrepreneurial ascent, but also his relationships with politics, his personal investments and the human side of a man who, at 81 years old, continues to play a leading role.
Who is Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellisonthis is his full name, the August 17, 1944 In the Bronx to New York. Larry didn’t have a simple childhood. His biological mother, Florence SpellmanHe was a 19 -year -old girl, while the father was an American aviator of Italian origins, back from the Second World War. Not being able to keep him, after only nine months the mother decided to entrust him to his sister Lillian and her husband Louis Ellisonwho lived in Chicago. Just from the latter Larry took on the surname that made him famous.
Raised in a small apartment in the South Shore district, in an area inhabited by the Middle-Bassa, Ellison developed a strong link with the adoptive mother, while the relationship with the father was more complex: the man was severe and often called him a “good good”. Despite a good performance at school, Larry showed little interest in academic rules and ended up abandoning his university studies twice: first at the University of Illinois and then in Chicago, also due to the death of the adoptive mother. It will be in that period he met Chuck Weissfriend destined for to introduce it to the world then emerging information technology. In all this, it will only be at 48 that Larry will meet the biological mother for the first time.
Larry’s personal misadventures did not end with his family of origin, given his sentimental life to say the least eventful, who saw Ellison collect six weddings. His first union dates back to 1967 with Adda Quinnfollowed in 1977 from a very short wedding (just one year) with Nancy Wheeler Jenkins. In the 1983 groom Barbara Bootheformer receptionist, from whom he had two children: Megantoday a film producer with his Annapurno PicturesAnd Davidfounder of the Skydance Productionsbecome over time Skydance Media. In the 2003 He married the writer Melanie craftin a marriage immortalized none other than from Steve Jobs: The Apple co-founder was in fact a great friend of Ellison and, on that occasion, he acted as an exceptional photographer. In the following years he had a long relationship with the Ukrainian actress and model Nikita Kahnwith whom he married in 2010. Finally, in 2024already eighty -year -old, Ellison joined in marriage with Jolin (born Zhu), known in the times when she was a student at the University of Michigan.
The birth of Oracle
Given Ellison’s love difficulties, it is not an exaggeration to say that his most lasting love was the one for Oracle: the company that made it famous. In the 70s Ellison had various experiences in technological companies such as AMDAHL And Ampex. It was precisely to Ampex that he worked on a database commissioned by Ciaa project that took the name of “Oracle”. The basic idea was inspired by the theories of Edgar F. Codd on relational databases, i.e. systems capable of organizing large quantities of data in tables connected to each other, simplifying access and analysis of information. In the 1977 Ellison invested 1,200 dollars own, together with two other members (Bob Miner And And oates), to found the Software Development Laboratories. After a first phase of reorganization, the company changed its name several times until it becomes, in 1982, Oracle Systems Corporation. Six years after his foundation, then, Oracle made his stock exchange debut.
Oracle’s growth was not linear. Just think that in 1990 the company he dismissed about 10% of the workforce Because of a commercial strategy defined as up-French: the sellers pushed customers to buy large volumes of licenses in advance, inflating the numbers of the quarters, but generating serious problems when sales did not materialize. Ellison himself called that episode a “Incredible business error». Since then, despite alternate phases, a crucial actor has remained in the software and services for businesses. Today its data centers are requested by reality such as Openai and Nvidia.
Currently, Ellison has about 40% of Oracleshare that multiplied its assets during the last race to artificial intelligence. When the 10 September 2025 The company’s shares have grown up with Over 40% in one dayhis personal wealth recorded a increase of over 100 billion less than 24 hours: an event almost unprecedented!
Ellison was CEO of Oracle up to 2014when he decided to pass the witness to stay though executive president And technical directortwo roles that still covers today. His ability to focus on cloud computing – a model in which digital services are provided via the Internet instead of through local infrastructures – and on the infrastructures necessary for AI has proved decisive to keep the competitive Oracle in front of the Microsoft and Amazon giants.
The other passions of Ellison
In addition to the business, Ellison has built a personal empire. In the 2012 ha Purchased 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for 300 million dollarstransforming it into a sort of private sustainability laboratory. It is also a passionate sailor: with the Oracle team won theAmerica’s Cup In the 2013 and in 2018 has co-founded Sailgpthe International League of high -speed catamarans. Among its hobbies there are also the tennis (owns the tournament of Indian Wellsknown as “Quinto Slam”) and the planes (It has the pilot patent and has several private jets).
