From programmer to AI era billionaire: How 81-year-old Larry Ellison is reshaping his business empire

On September 10, 2025, local time, a documented wealth story was rewritten. 81-year-old Larry Ellison became the world’s new richest person overnight, with a net worth reaching $393 billion, thanks to a single-day surge in Oracle’s stock price. Once long surpassed by others, this tech pioneer achieved a delayed reversal amid the AI wave. The moment he surpassed Elon Musk, Ellison proved to the world: true legends do not fade with age.

How Abandoned Orphans Become Silicon Valley Leaders

In 1944, Larry Ellison was born into a poor family in the Bronx, New York. His biological mother was a 19-year-old unmarried woman unable to raise him. At nine months old, the abandoned baby was sent to Chicago and adopted by his aunt’s family. His adoptive father was an ordinary government employee, and the family was extremely impoverished.

His college years were also turbulent. Ellison was admitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but dropped out in his sophomore year after his foster mother passed away. He briefly attended the University of Chicago but left after one semester. This young man seemed incompatible with academic environments, but his thirst for knowledge never extinguished.

After leaving school, Ellison traveled across the United States to seek work. He did freelance programming work in Chicago, then drove to Berkeley, California—a place full of counterculture and technological innovation. He later recalled, “People there seemed freer and smarter.” This observation changed his life trajectory.

In the early 1970s, Ellison joined Ampex Corporation, which specialized in audio-visual storage and data processing. As a programmer, he participated in a destiny-changing project—designing an efficient database management system for the CIA. Codenamed “Oracle,” this project unexpectedly laid the foundation for his future career.

In 1977, 32-year-old Ellison co-founded Software Development Laboratories with former colleagues Bob Miner and Ed Oates with an initial investment of $2,000. Their first strategic decision was to commercialize the CIA project results—developing a universal database system named “Oracle.” This was not a technological invention but a commercial intuition victory. Ellison was among the first to recognize the business value of relational databases and to bet everything on it.

In 1986, Oracle went public on NASDAQ, becoming a rising star in the enterprise software market. From then on, Ellison’s name was closely linked to every major turning point of the company. He served as President, Chairman, and CEO, controlling nearly every key decision for nearly forty years. Even during a surfing accident in 1992 that nearly took his life, he refused to let go.

A Delayed Comeback in the AI Boom: Why Did Oracle’s Stock Price Surge 40% in One Day?

For a long time, Oracle appeared somewhat sluggish in the cloud computing wave. Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure had taken the lead, causing market doubts about this veteran software giant. But Ellison never gave up. He persisted in deepening enterprise markets, maintaining core competitiveness in database technology, waiting for the next era.

In 2025, this wait finally paid off.

On September 10, Oracle announced that in the latest quarter, it signed four contracts totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. The most notable was a $300 billion, five-year cooperation agreement with OpenAI. Less than a day after the announcement, Oracle’s stock soared over 40%, the largest single-day increase since 1992.

This was no coincidence. Against the backdrop of explosive growth in generative AI, managing and querying massive data became the most critical infrastructure demand. With decades of accumulated database technology and relationships with enterprise clients, Oracle unexpectedly became an indispensable supplier in the AI era.

That summer, Oracle announced large-scale layoffs of thousands of employees, involving hardware sales and traditional software departments. At the same time, the company increased investments in data centers and AI infrastructure. This was not decline but a strategic shift. Industry experts commented that Oracle had transformed from an “old software vendor” into an “AI infrastructure dark horse.”

For Larry Ellison, this stock surge symbolized a deeper victory—finding a new path for Oracle amid the AI reshaping everything.

Beyond the Tech Empire: Family Power and Political Influence

Ellison’s wealth has long transcended personal boundaries, becoming the cornerstone of a family empire.

His son, David Ellison, completed the acquisition of Paramount Global (the parent company of CBS and MTV) in 2024 for $8 billion, with $6 billion supported by the Ellison family funds. This deal marked the Ellison family’s reach into Hollywood’s core. While his father controls Silicon Valley’s tech lifeblood, his son leads the entertainment industry, weaving a wealth empire spanning technology and culture across two generations.

On the political stage, Ellison is a frequent presence. As a long-time supporter of the Republican Party and a heavyweight political donor, he shapes power through his funds. In 2015, he funded Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign; in 2022, he donated $15 million to the super PAC supporting South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. In January this year, Ellison appeared at the White House alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announcing a $500 billion investment to build AI data center networks. This is both business and a display of power.

Waves at the Water’s Edge, Love in the Heart: The Self-Discipline Code of the 81-Year-Old Billionaire

Larry Ellison embodies a perplexing duality of luxury and discipline, adventure and restraint.

He owns 98% of the land on Lanai, Hawaii, multiple top-tier California mansions, and world-class yachts. Behind these material possessions lies an almost instinctive obsession with extreme sports. His 1992 surfing accident nearly claimed his life but did not stop him from pursuing adrenaline. Later, he turned this passion to sailing. In 2013, he supported Oracle Team USA’s historic comeback in the America’s Cup sailing race, ultimately winning the cup. In 2018, he founded SailGP, a high-speed catamaran racing league, which now attracts investments from celebrities like actress Anne Hathaway and football star Kylian Mbappé.

Tennis is another passion. He revitalized the California Indian Wells Masters, making it known as the “Fifth Grand Slam.”

Sports and discipline are his secrets to longevity. Insiders reveal that between 1990 and 2000, Ellison spent hours daily exercising. He rarely drinks sugary beverages, only water and green tea, with strict dietary controls. This lifestyle discipline keeps him vibrant at 81, often described as “20 years younger than his peers.”

In love, Ellison has had a rich marriage history. In 2024, he quietly married Chinese-American Jolin Zhu, who is 47 years his junior. According to the South China Morning Post, Zhu was born in Shenyang, China, and graduated from the University of Michigan. This marriage again made his private life a public focus. Some netizens joked that Ellison seems to have an eternal love for浪—surfing on the waves and romantic pursuits alike, both equally captivating to him.

Giving 95% of Wealth Back to Humanity: Ellison’s Independent Philanthropic Philosophy

In 2010, Larry Ellison signed the “Giving Pledge,” promising to donate at least 95% of his wealth to charity. Unlike peers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Ellison’s philanthropy is unique, rarely participating in collective initiatives.

The New York Times once interviewed him, noting that he “cherishes solitude and dislikes being influenced by external ideas.” This individualistic approach to charity is reflected in his actions. In 2016, he donated $200 million to the University of Southern California to establish a cancer research center. Recently, he announced that part of his wealth would be invested in the Ellison Institute of Technology, a collaboration with Oxford University focusing on medical, agricultural, and climate research. On social media, he stated: “We aim to design new life-saving drugs, build low-cost agricultural systems, and develop efficient clean energy.”

Ellison’s charitable style is highly personal. He is not keen on standing in the spotlight with industry peers but prefers to independently craft a future aligned with his ideals. This approach demonstrates his sincerity toward philanthropy and reflects his lifelong pursuit of independence and rejection of compromise.

The Legend Continues

At 81, Larry Ellison finally ascended to the top of the global wealth list in 2025. From a CIA contract to building a dominant database empire, and then seizing the AI wave with a “delayed comeback,” his wealth, power, family, sports, and philanthropy have never lacked topics or stayed away from storms.

He is the eternal “rogue” of Silicon Valley—stubborn, competitive, and uncompromising. The throne of the world’s richest may soon change hands again, but at least in this moment, Larry Ellison proved to the world: in an era where AI reshapes everything, the legend of the older generation of tech giants is far from over.