Larry Ellison's rag-to-riches journey: From being raised by adoptive relative to a college dropout
Larry Ellison, a Donald Trump supporter and Oracle co-founder, briefly became the richest person after Oracle shares surged.
Larry Ellison, the US tech mogul and a Donald Trump supporter, briefly became the richest person in the world after shares of Oracle surged in early trade on Wednesday. He, however, retained the spot of world's richest man by surpassing Elon Musk's net worth for a brief period.
Ellison's wealth has increased following his company's exceptional financial performance, in which he owns a stake of 41 percent.
According to Bloomberg's billionaires index, Oracle's shares climbed by almost 40% in early trade to $340 a share, placing the business software giant at $958 billion (£707 billion), with Ellison's stake at $393 billion, barely ahead of Musk's $384 billion fortune.
Who is world's richest man now?
Ellison's net worth is currently $399.7 billion, whereas Musk's is expected to be approximately $439.4 billion based on Forbes real-time statistics.
Larry Ellison: A look at Trump supporter's fortune
Ellison owns nearly all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he purchased in 2012 for $300 million. In 2020, he relocated his base there.
{{/usCountry}}Ellison owns nearly all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he purchased in 2012 for $300 million. In 2020, he relocated his base there.
{{/usCountry}}Ellison, who also supports Donald Trump, has frequently visited the White House with the US President, even during the launch of the Stargate project, which will invest $500 billion in US artificial intelligence infrastructure.
{{/usCountry}}Ellison, who also supports Donald Trump, has frequently visited the White House with the US President, even during the launch of the Stargate project, which will invest $500 billion in US artificial intelligence infrastructure.
{{/usCountry}}Most of Ellison's fortune comes from Oracle, and the company's value has increased due to demand from AI startups for its cloud services, which offer computer capacity to businesses like OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, who require large datacenters to power their technology.
{{/usCountry}}Most of Ellison's fortune comes from Oracle, and the company's value has increased due to demand from AI startups for its cloud services, which offer computer capacity to businesses like OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, who require large datacenters to power their technology.
{{/usCountry}}In addition to owning his own America's Cup sailing team, Ellison loves to collect cars and private jets. His amazing real estate holdings include a private golf club in Rancho Mirage, California; a $70 million home in Silicon Valley; the former Astor family summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island; a historic garden palace in Kyoto, Japan; and the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai.
{{/usCountry}}In addition to owning his own America's Cup sailing team, Ellison loves to collect cars and private jets. His amazing real estate holdings include a private golf club in Rancho Mirage, California; a $70 million home in Silicon Valley; the former Astor family summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island; a historic garden palace in Kyoto, Japan; and the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai.
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable causes, focusing on education and medical research.
Larry Ellison's wife and kids
Ellison, an 81-year-old former California resident, is a self-made billionaire. He is currently married to Jolin Zhu, who is his sixth wife.
Ellison shared two kids with Barbara Boothe, whom he married in 1983 and divorced in 1986. His kids David and Margaret are film producers and founders of Skydance Media and Annapurna Pictures, respectively.
Larry Ellison: A college dropout
Prior to founding Oracle, the database software company that brought him fame, Ellison was raised in a working-class Jewish immigrant household in Chicago.
"I was raised on the South Side of Chicago," he stated in a Smithsonian Institution oral history. “I remember Look Magazine called it the oldest and worst black ghetto in the United States.”
According to a Fortune profile, Ellison's mother was single parent during his birth in 1944. Ellison never met his biological father and her mother handed him over to her relatives. Therefore, he was raised by his adoptive relatives.
Before relocating to California and taking odd jobs, he left college twice, first from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and subsequently from the University of Chicago.
