1944–present
Latest News: Larry Ellison Briefly Becomes World’s Richest Person
Elon Musk has some competition atop the ranking of the world’s richest people thanks to Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison.
On September 10, a brief rise in Oracle stock allowed entrepreneur and tech giant Ellison to pass the Tesla leader for the No. 1 spot. The 81-year-old became the second person ever to accrue a fortune of more than $400 billion. By the following day, however, Ellison sat just behind Musk—with Bloomberg estimating his net worth at $383 billion and Forbes slightly higher at around $369.1 billion.
Ellison still serves as the chief technology officer of Oracle and holds a 41-percent share in the company, driving his surge in worth.
Who Is Larry Ellison?
American businessman Larry Ellison is the co-founder of technology company Oracle Corporation. He served its CEO from 1977 through 2014 and is now the company’s chairman of the board and chief technology officer. Ellison holds a 41-percent stake in Oracle and is worth more than $369 billion as of September 2025, making him one of the world’s richest people.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Lawrence Joseph Ellison
BORN: August 17, 1944
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
SPOUSES: Adda Quinn (1967–1974), Nancy Jenkins (c. 1977–1978), Barbara Boothe (1983–1986), Melanie Craft (2003–2010), and Jolin Zhu (c. 2023–present)
CHILDREN: David and Megan
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Leo
Background and Early Career
Larry Ellison was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx on August 17, 1944, to single mother Florence Spellman. When he was 9 months old, Ellison came down with pneumonia, and his mother sent him to Chicago to be raised by her aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison, who adopted the baby.
After high school, Ellison enrolled at the University of Illinois, Champaign, where he was named science student of the year. During his second year, his adopted mother died, and Ellison dropped out of college. The following fall, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, but he dropped out after only one semester.
Ellison then packed his bags for Berkeley, California, with little money. For the next decade, he moved from job to job at such places as Wells Fargo and the technology-focused Amdahl Corporation. Between college and his various jobs, Ellison had picked up basic computer skills, and he was finally able to put them to use as a programmer at Amdahl, where he worked on the first IBM-compatible mainframe system.
Oracle Corporation
In 1977, Ellison and two of his Amdahl colleagues founded Software Development Labs and soon had a contract to build a database-management system—which they called Oracle—for the CIA. The company had fewer than 10 employees and revenue of less than $1 million per year, but in 1981, IBM signed on to use Oracle. The game-changing deal allowed the startup’s sales to double every year for the next seven years. Ellison soon renamed the company after its best-selling product.
In 1986, Oracle Corporation held its IPO. It didn’t exactly go to plan. Some accounting issues helped wipe out the majority of the company’s market capitalization, and Oracle teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. After a management shakeup and a product-cycle refresh, however, the company’s new products took the industry by storm. By 1992, Oracle was the leader in the database-management realm.
Success continued, and as Ellison was Oracle’s largest shareholder, he became one of the wealthiest people in the world. Ellison set his sights on growth through acquisitions, and over the next several years, he gobbled up several companies, including PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Sun Microsystems. All that helped Oracle reach a market cap of roughly $185 billion with some 130,000 employees by 2014.
That same year, Ellison resigned as CEO. He now serves as chief technology officer and the company’s chairman of the board.
Yacht and America’s Cup Win
When he’s not busy bolstering his software empire, Ellison both races and relaxes through yachting. He formerly owned the Rising Sun, which is over 450 feet long with 80 rooms, a basketball court, and can be used as a helicopter pad. He sold the vessel in 2010 for $300 million and later sailed on the Musashi and Katana.
Also in 2010, Ellison joined the BMW Oracle racing team and won the prestigious America’s Cup. The victory brought the cup to the United States for the first time in 15 years, a win the team repeated in 2013.
Net Worth
Ellison is one of the world’s richest people thanks to his 41-percent stake in Oracle, whose market valuation has risen as high as $933 billion.
On September 10, 2025, Oracle stock rose more than one-third, briefly moving Ellison past SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the No. 1 spot and making him just the second person to achieve a fortune of more than $400 billion. Bloomberg now estimates Ellison’s net worth around $383 billion, placing him second to Musk.
Ellison owns 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he purchased for $300 million in 2012. He also helped his son start Skydance Productions, a movie, TV, and gaming studio that merged with Paramount in 2025.
Wife and Personal Life
Ellison is currently married to Jolin Zhu, a former student at the University of Michigan who is around 47 years his junior.
Their marriage was kept hidden until late 2024, when a Michigan sports name, image, and likeness group referred to Zhu as Ellison’s wife following the signing of football player Bryce Underwood. Little otherwise is known about their relationship.
Ellison has four previous known marriages, including to Adda Quinn, Nancy Wheeler Jenkins, Barbara Boothe, and Melanie Craft. He was also in a long-term relationship with Ukrainian actor and model Nikita Khan and even named a restaurant after her.
Ellison has two children from his relationship with Boothe: a son named David and a daughter named Megan. Both his children have worked as movie producers, and starting in August 2025, David Ellison became the CEO and chairman of Paramount after it merged with his media company Skydance.
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