At 81 years old, Larry Ellison has just experienced what many would call the most important day of his business life. On September 10th, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, he became the richest man in the world. It wasn’t a gradual rise: his fortune jumped over $100 billion in a single day, enough to surpass Elon Musk, who had held that position for years. Ellison reached $393 billion while Musk was at $385 billion. Quite dramatic for someone who started with nothing.

What’s fascinating is how he got here. Born in 1944 in the Bronx as the son of a single mother, he was abandoned at nine months old with his aunt in Chicago. His childhood was modest; his family struggled financially. He attempted college twice, in Illinois and then in Chicago, but both times dropped out. He spent years wandering across the United States, working as a programmer, until the 1970s when he arrived in Berkeley, California. There, at Ampex Corporation, he participated in a project that would change everything: designing a database system for the CIA, codenamed Oracle.

In 1977, at 32 years old, Ellison and two colleagues invested $2,000 to found what would become Oracle. He contributed $1,200 of his own money. He wasn’t the inventor of database technology, but he was one of the first to see its commercial potential and bet everything on it. By 1986, Oracle went public on Nasdaq as a star in enterprise software. Over more than forty years, the company experienced ups and downs, but it always played a central role in corporate software.

Now, the reason for the current surge in wealth is interesting. In September 2025, Oracle announced contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars, including a five-year, $300 billion collaboration with OpenAI. The stock soared over 40% in a day, the biggest move since 1992. Although Oracle lagged behind AWS and Azure in the initial cloud race, its strength in databases and its enterprise focus position it perfectly for the AI infrastructure wave. The company laid off thousands of employees in traditional hardware and software, but increased investment in data centers. Essentially, it reinvented itself just in time.

Beyond the numbers, Ellison’s life is a fascinating contrast. He owns 98 percent of Lanai Island in Hawaii, several mansions, and world-class yachts. He is obsessed with water and wind. In 1992, he nearly died surfing, but that didn’t stop him. He moved on to sailing, sponsoring Oracle Team USA in a legendary comeback at the America’s Cup. He founded SailGP, a catamaran racing league that now attracts investors like Anne Hathaway and Kylian Mbappé. He revitalized the Indian Wells tournament, considered the fifth Grand Slam of tennis.

What’s surprising is his self-discipline. He spends hours daily exercising, drinks only water and green tea, and strictly controls his diet. At 81, he looks twenty years younger than his peers. Regarding his personal life, he has been married four times. In 2024, he discreetly married Jolin Zhu, a Chinese woman 47 years his junior. The news broke when the University of Michigan mentioned a donation from Larry Ellison and his spouse. Some joke that Ellison loves surfing and also falling in love. To him, both seem equally attractive.

His son David is also in the game. He acquired Paramount Global for $8 billion, with $6 billion in family support. The father in Silicon Valley, the son in Hollywood, together built an empire spanning technology and media.

In politics, Ellison is a well-known Republican donor. He has funded presidential campaigns and donated $150 million to a Super PAC. In January of this year, he appeared at the White House with the CEO of SoftBank and Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion network of AI data centers. Oracle will be key.

In 2010, he signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate 95% of his fortune. But unlike Gates or Buffett, he rarely participates in collective initiatives. He prefers to work alone. In 2016, he donated $200 million to USC for cancer research. Recently, he announced that part of his wealth will go to the Ellison Institute of Technology with Oxford to research medicine, agriculture, and clean energy.

At 81, Larry Ellison has finally reached the top as the world’s richest man. He started with a CIA contract, built a global database empire, and strategically positioned himself in the AI wave. Wealth, power, marriage, sports, philanthropy: his life is never short of topics. He’s the old playboy of Silicon Valley—stubborn, combative, uncompromising. The throne of the world’s richest man may change soon, but for now, Ellison has proven that the legend of the old tech titans is far from over.