Larry Ellison overcame a childhood bout of pneumonia to go on to cofound Oracle, the database-management company for which he is best known. Under his longtime leadership as CEO, Oracle grew into one of the world’s most successful companies. He has drawn criticism for his lavish lifestyle and aggressive business practices, but with a net worth of more than $100 billion, Ellison remains one of the world’s richest people.
Early Life and Education
Lawrence Joseph Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, in the Bronx, New York. At nine months old, he developed pneumonia. It was then that his 19-year-old single mother, Florence Spellman, arranged to have her son raised by her aunt and uncle. The couple, Lillian and Louis Ellison, adopted young Larry, and he spent his youth living in their two-bedroom apartment on the South Side of Chicago. It wasn’t until Larry was 12 that he learned he had been adopted.
After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spent two years there, winning honors as science student of the year. Near the end of his second year, his adoptive mother died.
While he had a contentious relationship with his adoptive father, Larry was especially close with Lillian. Shortly after her death, he dropped out of the University of Illinois. He enrolled in the University of Chicago the next fall but lasted only one semester before leaving school again.
Early Career
Although he never earned a degree, Ellison had by this point learned the basics of computer programming. He moved to Berkeley, California, in 1966 with only a few dollars in his pocket. Thanks to his programming skills, he managed to find work, taking jobs as a computer technician with several companies, including Wells Fargo, the Fireman’s Fund, Amdahl, and Ampex.
It was during this time that Ellison met Ed Oates and Bob Miner. The trio spent several years working together before Ellison left for another position. They reunited in 1977, coming together to establish the company that would become Oracle.
Oracle’s Founding
The new company, initially known as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), was launched with only $2,000, $1,200 of which came from Ellison. In its early days, SDL contracted out its computer-programming services.
The company’s focus changed when the founders came across a paper by IBM computer scientist Edgar F. Codd. In it, Codd explicated what he called a “relational database model.” Now commonplace, these databases, which allow organizations to store and retrieve substantial amounts of electronic data, were novel at the time. With Ellison leading as CEO, SDL began developing a commercial application for Codd’s theoretical model.
SDL’s work resulted in it earning its first client: the Central Intelligence Agency. The company created a relational database for the agency in a two-year project codenamed Oracle. SDL finished the project in one year and used the remaining time to focus on the possible commercial applications of the software.
Oracle Takes Off
At the time of the release of the Oracle software in 1980, the company (now known as Relational Software, Inc.), had eight employees and was tallying annual revenues of about $1 million. Things changed in 1981 when IBM selected the Oracle software for use in the company’s mainframe systems.
Relational Software’s sales responded by doubling annually for seven consecutive years. Ellison renamed the company after its software product in 1982, and four years later Oracle went public with a $31.5 million initial public offering. With its adaptable software product, the company was a major force in the early tech industry, and its growth seemed limitless over the 1980s.
A sizable bump in the road came in 1990 when a lawsuit by Oracle shareholders revealed the company was habitually overstating its earnings. Bankruptcy seemed a real possibility as Oracle’s market capitalization dropped by 80 percent. Ellison, who called Oracle’s behavior “a huge business mistake,” replaced his original senior staff with experienced executives, and the company largely recovered by 1992.
Oracle’s Continued Rise
Oracle continued to grow over the ’90s, thanks in large part to Ellison steering the company toward developing products that could be used online. By 2000, Oracle’s embrace of e-commerce resulted in massive profit increases, and Ellison became the second-richest man in the world, behind Bill Gates.
Over the rest of the decade, Ellison led an aggressive expansion at Oracle. Starting with the $10.3 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2004 and capped off by the $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2010, Oracle bought dozens of competitors. In the process, it became the planet’s biggest business-software company.
Exit from Oracle and Investments
Ellison began transitioning away from his day-to-day leadership of Oracle in 2010. He officially stepped down as CEO in 2014, turning over the company to two longtime Oracle presidents.
Following his exit as CEO—though he remained with Oracle as executive chair and chief technology officer—Ellison made a series of lucrative investments. These included buying into Tesla for approximately $1 billion in 2018. Within just a few years, his investment had increased in value to $13 billion.
He also profited personally when Oracle acquired NetSuite for $9.3 billion in 2016. Ellison, who had been an early investor in the company, netted $3.5 billion in cash as part of the deal.
Personal Life
Ellison has long courted controversy as an entrepreneur. He has frequently disparaged competitors and made deals that made enemies of former colleagues. He has also drawn criticism from some for his lavish personal spending.
In 2012 he purchased 98 percent of the Hawaiian island Lanai. Bloomberg Businessweek published an article in 2022 examining the consequences of Ellison’s purchase on the island’s residents. His high-dollar purchases also include the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which means he also owns its annual tennis tournament, and the Astor Beechwood Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
Ellison’s expensive hobbies extend to yacht racing. He has participated in the sport as far back as the ‘90s. In 2010 he sponsored and was a member of the team that won the prestigious America’s Cup race.
Outside of his personal spending, Ellison has made significant philanthropic donations as well. His $200 million gift to the University of Southern California helped establish a cancer research center that carries his name. He is also a signatory of the Giving Pledge and has promised to donate 95 percent of his wealth to charity by the end of his life.