Larry Ellison is an American IT entrepreneur. In 1977, he was a co-founder of Oracle Corporation. He is currently the company’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, having served as CEO until 2014. He was raised in Chicago after being born in New York City.
Ellison became the world’s richest person in September 2025. According to Bloomberg, he surpasses Elon Musk in net worth, with an estimated $393 billion.
Early Life and Education
Larry Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, in New York City. He was adopted and raised in Chicago’s South Shore area. He attended the University of Illinois, then the University of Chicago. However, he dropped out of both and did not finish his degree.
Career
Mr. Ellison, 81, helped establish Oracle in California in 1977. He was Oracle’s CEO until 2014 and is now its chairman and chief technology officer.
He also served on Tesla’s board of directors from December 2018 until August 2022, owning 45 million shares in the business before stepping out.
More lately, Mr Ellison has positioned himself as an ally of US President Donald Trump, frequently appearing beside him at the White House.
His aspirations go beyond the expansion of AI. Mr Ellison supported the majority of his son’s $US4.75 billion attempt to acquire Paramount, and Oracle has been mentioned as a potential acquirer of TikTok.
Why did Ellison’s wealth soar this week?
The increase came after Oracle stock climbed more than 40% in the opening few minutes of trading on Wednesday.
This was aided by the database software company’s optimistic forecast for its cloud infrastructure business and billion-dollar AI agreements with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and Musk’s xAI.
Oracle forecast in its quarterly earnings report that revenue from its cloud infrastructure segment will increase 77% this year to $US18 billion.
Mr Ellison’s personal wealth is mostly derived from his 41 percent share in Oracle. So, as equities jumped, his net worth increased by $100 billion in less than half an hour after the market opened.
Net Worth
According to Bloomberg, Larry Ellison‘s net worth increased to roughly US$393 billion by September 2025, making him the world’s richest person, surpassing Elon Musk (around $385 billion). Oracle’s stock rose by more than 40% as a result of solid AI-cloud acquisitions.