It was an exciting day in the world’s richest list on Wednesday. While the rest of us peasants were working to pay the never-ending stream of bills, the planet’s billionaires were locked in a race for the crown. Larry Ellison replaced Elon Musk as the world’s richest person, but his stint at the top was short lived.
Shares of Larry’s company surged by more than 40% yesterday, adding $100 billion to his net worth. This brought his total fortune to $393bn (£290bn), surpassing Elon’s $385bn (£284bn). However, by the end of the day some of those gains were lost, and the Tesla CEO regained the top spot.
Who is Larry Ellison?
Larry is the co-founder of Oracle, a database company. He started the enterprise in the late 1970s, but became well known in the 90s due to his extravagant lifestyle. Despite being 81 years old, the tech giant is still very much involved in the company, serving as its chairman and chief technology officer. When he’s not working, Larry is engaging in the usual billionaire hobbies – lazing on his $160 million yacht, enjoying his $30 billion car collection, or romancing beautiful women (he’s been married five times). If that wasn’t enough to make you sick, the businessman also has his own island in Hawaii.
Larry has been embroiled in his far share of controversy over the years, including aggressive business practices at Oracle, using tax strategies and offshore holdings to minimize taxes, and various high-profile lawsuits.
What are Larry Ellison’s politics?
While the Oracle founder hasn’t publicly voiced his political leanings, he has had close ties to the Republican party for around a decade. He is friends with the POTUS and has frequented his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump has previously spoken of his desire for Larry to buy TikTok. He has described him as “an amazing man and businessman”.
Larry also counts Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu among his close friends. The billionaire has made several large donations to the Israeli military via Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. In 2017, he gave the non-profit it’s biggest-ever sum of $16.6 million. It’s not clear if he has made any more recent donations.
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