Larry Ellison is the former CEO and co-founder of IT giant Oracle. After 37 years at the top post in Oracle, he moved out to become its chairman and CTO.
Today, he is the world's second richest person. And he is closing in on Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk.
Ellison owns around 40 per cent of Oracle, one of the biggest names in software, now valued at close to $679 billion. He also owns nearly half of the media giant Paramount Skydance.
Forbes puts his net worth at $293 billion, and he is the second-wealthiest human in the world today. Ellison owns almost all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, most of which he acquired in 2012 for $300 million. In 2020, the billionaire moved his base there.
Now aged 81, former California resident Ellison is a self-made billionaire. He is married to Jolin Zhu. He was married five times before this: Adda Quinn in 1967; divorced in 1974. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins in 1976; divorced in 1978. Barbara Boothe in 1983; divorced in 1986. Melanie Craft in 2003; divorced in 2010; and Nikita Kahn, divorced in 2020.
With Barbara Boothe, Ellison had two kids, David and Margaret—they are film producers and founders of Skydance Media and Annapurna Pictures, respectively.
The billionaire is famously a dropout from the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois.
As he closes in on Elon Musk, it is worth noting that Ellison also sat on the Tesla board until June 2022, and then owned a little over 15 million shares in the company—around 1.5 per cent.
