81-year-old AI Veteran, Biggest Winner of 2025

Honghao Wang

02 Dec 2025 — 4 min read

Larry Ellison: The Silicon Valley "Old Boy" Driving AI’s New Wave

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Editor’s Note

On September 10, a brief fluctuation in the rankings of the world’s richest individuals grabbed headlines.

Elon Musk, 54, was momentarily overtaken by his old friend — Larry Ellison, 81 — whose wealth skyrocketed on a historic surge in Oracle’s share price.

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The Rise Toward the Top

Oracle’s Surge:
Ellison’s 40% stake in Oracle jumped by 35% — the largest rise since 1992 — pushing him briefly to the number one spot.
TikTok Connection:
Rumors swirled that Oracle would become TikTok’s U.S. security provider, controlling U.S. operations.
By late September, Donald Trump signed the executive order.
Wealth Ranking:
Ellison stayed second in the world for 70+ days, until November 25, settling at third place behind a Google co-founder.

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Ellison’s Renewed Role in Tech

Despite missing the cloud computing and AI gold rush initially, Ellison — founder of the once “unsexy” Oracle database giant, absent from the famed Magnificent Seven — has now found himself holding critical responsibilities:

Close ties to Donald Trump, earning praise as “the CEO of everything.”
High-profile appearances at AI and global summits.
Key participant in Trump’s $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure project alongside Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son.

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> “Someone once asked Elon Musk who was the smartest person he had ever met. Musk answered instantly: ‘Larry Ellison definitely counts.’”

Last year, Ellison dined with Musk and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Both asked Huang to “take more of our money” in exchange for the hardware powering the AI boom.

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Oracle’s Comeback in the AI Era

Lost Cloud Battle: Amazon and Microsoft dominated, but Oracle rebuilt, signing massive AI contracts.
Record RPO: $455 billion in signed, unfulfilled contracts — up 400%+ year-on-year.
Share spike lifted Ellison briefly to $393B net worth, now at $260B, 3rd globally.

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Early Life

Born August 1944 in New York.
Unmarried mother, raised by aunt and uncle in Chicago.
Diagnosed with pneumonia at 9 months; never knew his biological father.
Admitted to University of Illinois in 1962 — aimed for medicine but dropped out after his adoptive mother’s death.
Briefly attended University of Chicago (1966), where he discovered computers, but dropped out again.

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Silicon Valley Beginnings

Moved to California, working as a programmer amid a hardware-driven Silicon Valley.
Outdoors enthusiast — river guide and climbing instructor.
First marriage ended after disputes over “ambition” — led him to pursue his own dreams, buying a sailboat and starting Oracle for the CIA.

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Founding Oracle

Inspired by IBM’s relational database papers.
Co-founded Oracle with $2,000 in pooled capital and a $50,000 CIA contract.
First product: Oracle database, first commercial SQL solution.
Key move: Portability — able to run on all computer systems.
Aggressive young sales team drove mid-1980s success; IPO in 1986 (one day before Microsoft).

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The Crisis Years

1990 accounting scandal: Sales prepayments booked as current revenue, later collapsing.
Restated earnings after 111% and 152% overstatements.
Layoffs, fines, and settlements followed — Ellison studied finance intensively to fix leadership flaws.

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Lessons in Resilience

Modern creators can draw parallels — turning setbacks into new growth paths.

Example: AiToEarn官网 — an AI-first platform enabling content creators to generate, publish, and monetize across Douyin, Kwai, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, and X (Twitter).

With analytics and AI model rankings (AI模型排名), it mirrors Ellison’s philosophy: own your vision, execute across channels.

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Rivalry with Microsoft

Exposed for hiring detectives to dig up Microsoft-linked groups’ trash during antitrust battles.
Pushed Network Computer (NC) concept (1996) — similar to today’s cloud computing.
Oracle entered cloud late (~2010), trailing AWS, Azure, and Google, but spent $30B+ on acquisitions between 2010–2020.
Stepped down as CEO in 2014, became CTO; retained 41% stake.

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Current AI & Media Moves

Partnered with OpenAI for $300B in cloud resources over 5 years via “Stargate.”
Invested in U.S. TikTok, hosting data on Oracle infrastructure.
Quoted: “AI is more important than the Industrial Revolution, electricity, and all earlier tech changes.”
Media ventures: Son acquired Paramount & CBS; Ellison eyeing Warner (CNN).

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Lifestyle & Personality

Extravagances: $200M Japanese villa, Hawaiian island, SailGP race, fighter jets.
Marriages: Six wives — latest in 2024, Zhu Qiaolin, 47 years younger.
Long-time friends with Musk, investor in Tesla, offered billions for Musk’s Twitter buy.
Close with Steve Jobs; considered buying Apple to reinstall Jobs.

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Legacy & Philanthropy

After Jobs’ death (2011), boosted disease research funding.
$200M to USC Ellison Institute (2016).
$1.25B to Oxford tech institute for immune system mapping.
Acquired Cerner for $28.3B to transform healthcare.
Invested heavily in anti-aging research.

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Musk on Longevity

When asked why he avoids longevity tech:

> “People won’t change their views until they die. If no one dies, outdated ideas will chain society.”

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AI in Future Innovation

Platforms such as AiToEarn官网 provide open-source frameworks for innovators in healthcare, biotech, and longevity to publish and monetize AI-powered insights globally — continuing the spirit of Ellison’s bold vision.

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Ellison’s story is a seamless blend of determination, reinvention, and high-stakes vision — from Silicon Valley’s birth to AI’s explosive present.