From Database Pioneer to World's Richest: How 81-Year-Old Larry Ellison Defied Conventional Wisdom

The Moment Everything Changed

When September 10, 2025 arrived, the financial world witnessed a historic shift. Larry Ellison, now 81, officially surpassed Elon Musk to claim the title of world’s richest person. His net worth soared past $393 billion—a staggering $100 billion surge in a single day—after Oracle announced massive AI infrastructure contracts worth hundreds of billions, including a landmark $300 billion partnership with OpenAI. The stock market’s response was explosive: Oracle’s shares climbed more than 40% in one trading session, marking its most dramatic day since 1992.

This wasn’t luck. It was the vindication of a decades-long vision.

A Life Shaped by Abandonment and Ambition

The story of Larry Ellison begins not in privilege, but in loss. Born in 1944 in the Bronx to an unmarried 19-year-old mother who couldn’t raise him, the future tech mogul was placed for adoption at nine months old. His adoptive family in Chicago offered stability but little wealth—his adoptive father worked as a government employee, and financial struggles were constant.

Ellison’s formal education was fragmented. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but dropped out after his sophomore year when his adoptive mother died. He briefly tried the University of Chicago but lasted only one semester before leaving the academic world behind. What he gained instead was freedom—and a relentless drive to prove something to the world.

In the early 1970s, restless and searching, Ellison drifted to Berkeley, California, drawn by what he perceived as intellectual and creative energy. It was here, working as a programmer at Ampex Corporation—a company focused on audio, video, and data processing—that his trajectory fundamentally shifted. At Ampex, he participated in a classified government project: building a database system for the CIA to manage and retrieve intelligence data efficiently. This project carried a code name that would become legendary: Oracle.

The Birth of an Empire

In 1977, Ellison and two colleagues—Bob Miner and Ed Oates—pooled their resources. Ellison contributed $1,200 of the $2,000 startup fund for Software Development Laboratories (SDL). Their audacious goal: commercialize the relational database model they had developed for government work.

What made Ellison different wasn’t that he invented database technology. Rather, he was the first entrepreneur bold enough to recognize its commercial potential and stake his entire career on it. While competitors dismissed databases as niche tools, Ellison saw them as foundational infrastructure for the digital economy.

Oracle went public in 1986 and quickly became the dominant force in enterprise database software. Ellison, known for his combative personality and competitive obsession, held nearly every major position in the company. He served as president for 18 years, took on the chairman role multiple times, and even after stepping down as CEO in 2014, he retained the position of Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.

The AI Resurrection

By the early 2020s, Oracle seemed to be a company losing relevance. Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure had dominated the cloud computing market, leaving Oracle in the shadows. But Ellison had never been someone to accept obsolescence.

When generative AI suddenly became the most valuable frontier in technology, Oracle pivoted aggressively. The company announced massive layoffs in summer 2025—cutting thousands of positions in legacy hardware sales and traditional software divisions—while simultaneously funneling billions into data center infrastructure and AI capabilities. The strategy worked.

Oracle became one of the essential suppliers to the AI boom, providing critical computational infrastructure. The company wasn’t just surviving; it was becoming indispensable again. In January 2025, Ellison appeared at the White House alongside SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion AI data center initiative, with Oracle technology at its core. This wasn’t merely a business deal; it was a declaration of power and relevance.

Building a Dynastic Wealth Empire

Ellison’s fortune has transcended his individual achievements. His son, David Ellison, demonstrated his own business acumen by acquiring Paramount Global—parent company to CBS and MTV—for $8 billion in 2024, with $6 billion of that sum coming from family resources. With the father commanding Silicon Valley and the son expanding into Hollywood, the Ellison family constructed a wealth architecture spanning technology and entertainment.

More recently, Ellison’s personal life has attracted public attention. In 2024, he married Jolin Zhu, a Chinese-American woman 47 years his junior. Unlike his previous relationships, this marriage became public knowledge through an unexpected source: a University of Michigan donation announcement mentioning “Larry Ellison and his wife, Jolin.” Zhu, originally from Shenyang, China, and a University of Michigan graduate, represented a significant addition to Ellison’s personal narrative.

The Philosophy of Contradictions

Ellison embodies seemingly contradictory impulses. He is simultaneously a billionaire who demands luxury and a self-disciplined athlete who follows stringent regimens. Former executives who worked alongside him in the 1990s and 2000s noted his commitment to daily exercise lasting several hours. His diet consisted almost exclusively of water and green tea, with zero tolerance for sugary beverages or indulgence.

This discipline has become legendary in Silicon Valley. At 81, Ellison maintains the vitality of someone two decades younger—a testament to his relentless self-optimization.

The Adventurer’s Spirit

Ellison owns virtually all of Lanai, one of Hawaii’s most exclusive islands, multiple palatial estates across California, and one of the world’s finest yacht collections. His obsession with water borders on spiritual. In 1992, a near-fatal surfing accident should have ended his relationship with the ocean; instead, it redirected his passion toward sailing.

In 2013, Oracle Team USA’s comeback victory at the America’s Cup—orchestrated with Ellison’s financial backing and strategic vision—stands as one of sailing’s most dramatic triumphs. More recently, in 2018, he founded SailGP, a professional catamaran racing league that has attracted high-profile investors including actress Anne Hathaway and football icon Kylian Mbappé.

Tennis became another outlet for his competitive nature. Ellison essentially resurrected the Indian Wells tournament in California, rebranding it as the “fifth Grand Slam” and transforming it into a premier event.

Wealth With Purpose

In 2010, Ellison signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least 95% of his accumulated wealth to charitable causes. Yet unlike contemporaries such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, he maintains deliberate distance from philanthropic establishment circles. In an interview with The New York Times, he explained: “I cherish my solitude and refuse to be influenced by outside ideas.”

His charitable approach is deeply personal. In 2016, he donated $200 million to the University of Southern California to establish a cancer research center. His most recent initiative involves directing resources toward the Ellison Institute of Technology, a collaboration with Oxford University, focusing on breakthrough treatments, sustainable agriculture, and clean energy development.

The Legacy of Defiance

At 81 years old, Larry Ellison finally became the world’s richest man—a title he had pursued for decades through relentless innovation and strategic positioning. He began with a classified CIA contract, built the world’s preeminent database company, and then executed a perfectly timed pivot into AI infrastructure just as the world needed it most.

His marriage to his spouse Jolin Zhu adds another chapter to a life that has never followed convention. Neither has his business philosophy, his personal discipline, or his approach to wealth and power.

As technologies reshape civilization and new fortunes eclipse old ones, Ellison stands as proof that experience, resilience, and the willingness to constantly reinvent oneself remain potent forces. The title of world’s richest person may eventually transfer to another visionary, but for now, Larry Ellison has demonstrated that the old guard of technology entrepreneurship is far from finished.