Everything to know about Larry Ellison, the new richest man in the world

Larry Ellison is the kind of person who builds kingdoms, burns competitors, marries whoever he wants, and then buys an entire island to host the ￰0￱ guy’s not new money, and he’s not Wall Street slick. He’s the person who made databases a billion-dollar war, turned tech boardrooms into blood sport, and somehow still ended up in Iron Man 2 in 2010. Then, out of nowhere yesterday, he became the richest man on earth with a net worth of $399 billion, as Cryptopolitan ￰1￱ who really is this man Silicon Valley follows and Wall Street fears? Born in August 1944, in the middle of the kind of America that didn’t even know what a computer was, Larry clawed his way from the margins of the tech industry by doing something no one else wanted to do: build the back-end ￰2￱ unsexy ￰3￱ a short stint at Amdahl Corporation, he landed at Ampex Corporation, where he helped build a database for the ￰4￱ called it “Oracle,” and that was where the obsession ￰5￱ Oracle and weaponize software In 1977, Larry put $1,200 of his own money into a company he co-founded called Software Development Laboratories, or ￰6￱ partners joined, and the total capital was $2,000.

He didn’t even write the code. “The other guys were better technically,” Larry once said, “so I did sales.” By 1979, the company rebranded as Relational Software ￰7￱ launched Oracle version 2—there was never a version 1, and went straight for IBM’s ￰8￱ wanted Oracle to work with IBM’s System R, based on the same relational database ideas from Edgar F. Codd’s groundbreaking ￰9￱ blocked ￰10￱ refused to share their error codes, but hey, Larry didn’t ￰11￱ just made Oracle ￰12￱ 1983, the company changed its name to Oracle Systems ￰13￱ came 1990, and things blew up for all the wrong ￰14￱ had been booking future sales as if they were current revenue. “An incredible business mistake,” Larry admitted ￰15￱ company laid off 10% of its staff, had to restate earnings twice, and paid out settlements in class-action ￰16￱ even in the middle of that, and while IBM was busy choking on its own arrogance and Sybase was losing focus after merging with Powersoft, Larry was still planning Oracle’s next ￰17￱ was flying high from 1990 to 1993, but by 1996, after giving up its Windows rights to Microsoft, it was ￰18￱ turned that into SQL Server, and Oracle picked up the ￰19￱ never looked ￰20￱ chaos and cash out hard In 2010, The Wall Street Journal declared him the highest-paid executive of the decade, pocketing $1.84 ￰21￱ that wasn’t even peak ￰22￱ 2011, Forbes had him as the fifth richest man ￰23￱ 2012, he was number three in the ￰24￱ $44 billion, sitting right behind Bill Gates and Warren ￰25￱ 2013, Bloomberg listed him eighth richest on the ￰26￱ Larry went ￰27￱ bought into Salesforce.

com, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology, and Astex ￰28￱ that, Larry made the ultimate power move when Oracle bought NetSuite in 2016 for $9.3 ￰29￱ owned 35% of ￰30￱ walked away $3.5 billion ￰31￱ 2012, he dropped between $500 and $600 million to buy 98% of Lānaʻi, a Hawaiian island, from David H. Murdock’s Castle & Cooke just to throw an afterparty with a few of his ￰32￱ in 2014, Larry gave up the CEO title at ￰33￱ handed it to Mark Hurd and Safra ￰34￱ he didn’t step ￰35￱ just slid sideways into the chief technology officer and executive chairman ￰36￱ joined Tesla’s board in 2018 after buying 3 million ￰37￱ stuck around until August ￰38￱ even after leaving, he still holds 1.4% of Tesla.

That’s on top of his 42.9% ownership of Oracle by late ￰39￱ tried branching out with Project Ronin, a health-tech startup he co-founded with David Agus and Dave ￰40￱ goal? Transform cancer care using better data analysis from medical ￰41￱ 2024, it ￰42￱ didn’t fight ￰43￱ shut it down and moved ￰44￱ that’s just what Larry ￰45￱ tests, he trades, he ￰46￱ Oracle was Larry’s first love, Larry’s marriages were ￰47￱ married Adda Quinn in ￰48￱ in ￰49￱ came Nancy Wheeler Jenkins in 1976, who gave up her SDL shares for $500 when they split in ￰50￱ 1983, he married Barbara Boothe, a former receptionist at Oracle’s early ￰51￱ had two kids, David and Megan, now both film ￰52￱ marriage ended in ￰53￱ 2003, he married romance novelist Melanie Craft at his Woodside ￰54￱ photographer?

Steve ￰55￱ officiant? Congressman Tom ￰56￱ marriage lasted until ￰57￱ came Nikita Kahn, Ukrainian-American ￰58￱ were together until ￰59￱ 2024, he had married Jolin (Keren) Ellison, a University of Michigan ￰60￱ doesn’t ￰61￱ doesn’t touch drugs. “I can’t stand anything that clouds my mind,” he once ￰62￱ his garage? That’s another ￰63￱ owns an Audi R8, a McLaren F1, and a Lexus ￰64￱ his favorite car is the Acura ￰65￱ gave one away every year during its production.