Meet Larry Ellison — The College Dropout Who Dethroned Elon Musk As World's Richest Man

As Oracle shares Zoomed on Sept 10, Larry Ellison surpassed Elon Musk and became the world's richest man, ending the Tesla chief's almost year-long reign. A total of $101 billion was added to his fortune after the stock rallied. As of today, his total net worth stands at $399 billion. In 2020, his net worth was $59 billion, as per Forbes.

New York-born Ellison is the chairman, chief technology officer and co-founder of software giant Oracle; but before all this he was a University of Chicago dropout who started out in his career by building databases for the CIA. The US multinational is recognised as the world’s largest database management company.

Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and served as its CEO for 37 years until 2014, after which he decided to step down and was named the executive chairman and chief technology officer. The 81-year-old owns roughly 40% of the company and has also served on the board of Tesla from December 2018 to August 2022.

Over the years, Ellison has held multiple titles in the company — from 1978 to 1996 he was Oracle's President; from 1990 to 1992, he became the chairman twice. He took a break in 1992 after having a near death experience in a body surfing accident; he returned from his sabbatical in 1995.

According to Forbes, the world's richest man had purchased the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012 for $300 million, where he later relocated permanently. Ellison’s net worth was $59 billion as of 2020, marking a remarkable increase of over 325% in just five years.

Ellison is currently married to 33-year-old Jolin Zhu. According to reports, it is his fifth marriage. He is the father of David Ellison, who has produced movies such as the Terminator and Mission: Impossible. Ellison's daughter Megan is also a film producer and entrepreneur.