Observer | How Larry Ellison is Quietly Shaping the Future of A.I., Social Media and Hollywood by Georgia Fearn

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Observer | How Larry Ellison is Quietly Shaping the Future of A.I., Social Media and Hollywood by Georgia Fearn

Larry Ellison speaks at the White House launch of Stargate, the AI infrastructure venture backed by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank, on Jan. 21, 2025." width="970" height="647" data-caption='Larry Ellison’s influence extends from Oracle’s A.I. dominance to Hollywood’s largest merger. <span class="lazyload media-credit">Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images</span>'>
Larry Ellison stepped down as Oracle’s CEO more than a decade ago. Yet the company’s co-founder, now executive chair and chief technology officer—with an estimated net worth of $190 billion—remains deeply involved in Oracle’s biggest moves. His influence ripples far beyond enterprise software, extending from A.I. infrastructure and social media to Hollywood. Ellison is a key backer in the Trump administration’s Stargate project, the U.S. takeover of TikTok and the $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition led by his son, David Ellison.

Most of Ellison’s fortune comes from his Oracle holdings, and the company has soared amid the A.I. boom. For the fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 28, Oracle reported $17.2 billion in revenue, up 22 percent from a year earlier, including $8.9 billion from cloud services, up 44 percent. Once known primarily for database software and enterprise tools, Oracle has repositioned itself as a cloud powerhouse powering the world’s A.I. ambitions.

According to Oracle’s 2025 proxy filing, Ellison pledged 346 million Oracle shares—worth roughly $51 billion—as collateral to fund “outside personal business ventures.” His influence today merges business strategy with a broader worldview. In early 2025, he publicly argued that governments should unify their national data systems so A.I. platforms could query information more effectively. Ellison has also kept close political ties, having hosted a fundraiser for President Donald Trump at his California estate in 2020.

Stargate’s $500 billion A.I. ambition

The making of TikTok U.S.

The fortune behind Paramount Skydance’s WBD bid

Read more: https://observer.com/2026/03/larry-ellison-fortune-stargate-tiktok-paramount-wbd-merger/

#larryellison #oracle #tiktok