Larry Ellison

Controversies

• Reportedly offered an Oracle board seat to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2021, a report which Netanyahu denied, who a UN commission found to have “incited the commission of genocide.”
• According to journalist Karen Southwick’s 2003 book Everyone Else Must Fail, Ellison showed a photo of a rival company’s headquarters at a company banquet in Hawaii and said, “We’re going to run them out of business and buy that building, which we’re going to bulldoze. After that, we’ll salt the earth. Then we’ll go after their families.”
• After the Oracle team was found to have cheated in the America’s Cup sailing competition, was penalized and made to pay $250,000 to charity.
• The Guardian offered a joke about Ellison: “What’s the difference between God and Larry Ellison? God doesn’t think he’s Larry Ellison.” In 1997, a biographer titled his biography of Ellison The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison.

Obscene Spending

• Bought 97% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for $300 million, including, according to the New York Times, a third of all the houses and apartments owned by the island’s 3,200 residents, two Four Seasons-run hotels, the central commons in the center of Lanai City, the town swimming pool, the community center, the theatre, a grocery store, two golf courses, a wastewater treatment plant, the water company, and a cemetery.
• Bought an Italian fighter jet in the 1990s, and tried to purchase a decommissioned Russian fighter jet, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms did not allow into the US.
• Has spent more than $430 million on anti-aging research, telling his biographer, “Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?” According to the biographer, “Part of Larry Ellison is saying if he's smart enough he should be able to beat it. Death is just another kind of corporate opponent he can outfox.'”
• The Wall Street Journal reported in 2006 that a lawsuit by Oracle shareholders revealed that, at one point in mid-2000, Ellison owed more than $1 billion to five different banks, making him about $300 million from maxing out his line of credit. His financial advisor at the time forecasted more than $700 million in spending over the next three years, including $20 million a year for “lifestyle,” $194 million for a new yacht, and $80 million for Ellison’s sailing team. The advisor emailed Ellison saying, “I’m worried, Larry. It’s imperative that we start to budget and plan.”
• Told CNBC in 2012 he wanted a $4 billion line of credit “in case I go shopping and something catches my eye.” He continued, “If I wanted to buy the Los Angeles Lakers, I could go buy the Los Angeles Lakers.”

Enabling

Billionaire Media Takeover

In recent years, Ellison and his son, David, have amassed a colossal media empire. As a profile of the Ellison family in WIRED put it: “The Ellison family is cornering the market on attention and data the same way the Vanderbilts did railroads and the Rockefellers did oil.” The two now own Paramount Skydance (whose media brands include CBS News, Paramount Pictures, and Paramount Plus) a 15% stake in the entity that controls TikTok’s American operations, in addition to hosting the app’s user data in the U.S.

One of David Ellison’s first moves at CBS News was hiring Bari Weiss as top editor. According to The New York Times, in that role she postponed a “60 Minutes” report that was critical of the Trump administration, prompting “accusations of political interference.” The Ellisons’ increasing control of the media has prompted loud criticism. The media watchgroup FAIR stated, "The Ellison duo taking over both CBS and CNN, as well as controlling a major social media network like TikTok, would be dangerous for democracy. And given their closeness to the Trump regime, that seems to be the point." Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for the rejection of their bid for Warner Brothers, calling it a “dangerous concentration of power.”

At TikTok, the Ellisons’ influence is at the level of the algorithm; Oracle is, according to BBC, “in charge of retraining the algorithm that serves up what we see.” They are currently attempting to buy Warner Brothers, which would also give them control over properties including CNN and HBO. The New York Times has stated that if the deal goes through, “their holdings would rival those of the” Fox News-owning Murdoch family “at the height of its powers.”

AI Data Centers

The vast majority of Ellison’s fortune comes from Oracle, the database software giant he founded. Oracle is a major backer and beneficiary of the AI data center boom, and has signed a $300 million contract to develop more than half of the data centers that ChatGPT creator plans to build, and the half trillion dollar “Stargate” project supported by the Trump White House. Data centers are wildly unpopular, with 7 in 10 Americans saying they oppose data center construction where they live. Across the country, communities are fighting back against data centers, calling attention to their role in skyrocketing utility bills, massive consumption of water, and reliance on fossil fuels, a clear threat to Oracle’s bottom line.