5 facts about Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who briefly overtook Elon Musk as world’s richest

1. He rises from adopted child to tech titan

Ellison was born on Aug. 17, 1944, during World War II to an unmarried teenage mother in New York City. At nine months old, after contracting pneumonia, he was given to his aunt and uncle in Chicago to raise. He only discovered he was adopted at age 12, according to the Academy of Achievement.

Ellison dropped out of college twice, from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, but excelled in physics, which led to computer programming jobs in his 20s.

In the 1960s, he worked at Ampex in Berkeley, California, on a database project for the Central Intelligence Agency called Oracle. Inspired by IBM’s research paper on relational databases, he and colleagues left to commercialize the concept. They invested US$2,000 of their own money and secured a $50,000 CIA contract, which seeded their startup.

The company, later renamed Oracle, went public on March 12, 1986, just a day before Microsoft’s IPO, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. As Oracle has become a powerhouse in AI, it has ridden the recent tech boom that propelled Nvidia to a valuation above $4 trillion, CNN reported.

Forbes first listed Ellison as a billionaire in 1993 at age 49, with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion. On Sept. 10, a surge in Oracle shares added $89 billion to his fortune, briefly making him the world’s richest person with a net worth of $383.2 billion for a few hours, Bloomberg reported.

Larry Ellison, Oracle founder and world's second richest man. Photo by Reuters

2. He has a passion for Japanese arts

Ellison’s interests span music, sports, material science, and Japanese pottery. The New York Post reported he owns a Japanese art collection spanning more than 1,100 years, including Samurai swords. In 2013, 64 pieces were displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

His 23-acre Woodside, California estate was designed in Japanese style, complete with a lake, tea house, and koi pond, costing about $200 million in renovations. He also owns a villa in Kyoto worth up to $86 million, located on Zen Buddhist temple grounds, reflecting what he calls his "deep appreciation for Japanese culture and design."

3. He owns a $2 billion property portfolio

Ellison owns more than a dozen homes, according to lifestyle magazine Robb Report, including estates in San Francisco, Newport, Rhode Island, Florida, and Japan. His Florida compound in Manalapan cost $173 million, the state’s most expensive at the time.

In 2012, he bought 98% of the Lanai island, the sixth largest Hawaiian island, for $300 million. The island, a former pineapple plantation, features two Four Seasons resorts where Ellison often vacationed with Steve Jobs, along with lavish gardens and a golf course.

Lanai City has just 3,000 residents, one school, one hospital, and no traffic lights, with Ellison employing most locals. To reach the island, he uses two military jets he pilots himself or his $160 million superyacht Musashi. Lanai also hosts his Sensei wellness retreat, where AI is used to create personalized health programs.

4. His children are Hollywood players

Ellison’s children with his third wife Barbara Boothe, David and Megan Ellison, are both film executives. David is CEO and chairman of production company Paramount, part of Skydance Media, while Megan founded Annapurna Pictures, which produced the Oscar-winning AI film Her, as well as Phantom Thread, American Hustle, and Vice.

Recently, Ellison struck a deal to merge Skydance with Paramount Global, and the Wall Street Journal reported he may be preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

Ellison himself had a cameo in Iron Man 2 alongside Musk.

5. He pursues a quest for longevity

Ellison, a pescatarian who abstains from alcohol and drugs, maintains his health through daily exercise and sufficient sleep, while staying mentally sharp through pursuits such as sailing, tennis, flying, Japanese culture, chess, and guitar.

He has also sought to optimize happiness in his personal life, despite six marriages, Forbes reported. He later concluded that the true pursuit of happiness lies in giving with intention, which has driven his extensive donations to longevity-related causes.

That focus stems from a childhood fear of losing his adoptive mother. When she died of cancer during his college years, Ellison fell into depression and began directing his philanthropy toward longevity research. "Death has never made any sense to me," Business Insider quoted him telling his biographer. "How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?".

In 1997, he founded the Ellison Medical Foundation, which awarded $430 million in biomedical research grants on aging before ceasing new funding in 2013. He has also donated millions to medical causes, including $200 million to a USC cancer center in 2016, later renamed the Ellison Institute of Technology. With AI, Ellison now hopes to advance longevity research further and secure what he believes will be his greatest legacy.