He could also be 81-years outdated, however Oracle chairman and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison, a database expertise pioneer and a mainstay of Silicon Valley for 5 a long time, is at the peak of his affect, wealth and political power.
He is main a gaggle of buyers who will purchase and oversee the bulk of TikTok’s US assets, affirmed by an government order President Donald Trump signed on Thursday. He is backing his son David’s large ambitions to change into one of the nation’s prime media moguls. And earlier this month, Ellison briefly became the richest person in the world, eclipsing Elon Musk, as Oracle’s inventory exploded on its prognostications for its booming AI enterprise.
Ellison is cementing his place as one of the strongest enterprise figures in the world. A giant half of that evolution has come in consequence of his relationship with Trump.
Like many in Silicon Valley, Ellison’s political positions have advanced – from Bill Clinton loving Democrat, to a quiet Republican donor, to standing alongside Trump at the White House.
“The most interesting thing is how Larry Ellison went from being a very quiet, behind the scenes donor of super PACs to a much more vocal and active player in the conservative movement,” Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign which Ellison supported, advised NCS.
Until lately, Ellison was not seen as an overtly political billionaire – he has donated to each Democrats and Republicans. But that modified lately. (Ellison declined to remark through an Oracle spokesperson).
In the previous Ellison has expressed nice admiration for Clinton, telling Playboy in 2002 that Clinton is “an extraordinary human being.” In 2000 he reportedly joked about amending the structure “to elect Bill Clinton to a third term”.
Though Ellison was not identified to financially assist Barack Obama, he did meet with the former President throughout his time period and Obama golfed a number of instances on programs owned by Ellison. But it was throughout Obama’s presidency that it appears Ellison started shifting rightward, a number of shops have reported beforehand.
Ellison gave tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to assist now Secretary of State Rubio’s 2016 run for president. Sullivan, Rubio’s marketing campaign supervisor, described Ellison as “very low maintenance compared to a lot of the other billionaire donors,” who wouldn’t request “a bunch of meetings.”
“I wouldn’t say that I’m surprised he’s more out front now but it is a definite change,” Sullivan added.
After Rubio dropped out, Ellison didn’t endorse or donate to both Trump or Hillary Clinton.
In a 2018 interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Ellison mentioned he thought-about his politics half of “the dispassionate middle. The kind of boring, dispassionate middle” citing others he believes to be centrists similar to Clinton, Rubio, Sen. Mitt Romney and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In 2020, Ellison hosted a fundraiser for Trump’s first reelection marketing campaign at one of his properties, though he was cautious to inform a Forbes reporter at the time he didn’t attend himself. He additionally joined a White House advisory group working to revive America’s financial system throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t think [Trump’s] the devil—I support him and want him to do well,” Ellison advised Forbes that 12 months.
By September of 2020, Oracle turned TikTok’s business partner in the United States because it sought to fulfill the Trump administration’s nationwide safety considerations about TikTok. Trump had additionally supported Oracle’s try to purchase TikTok’s American operations, together with Walmart – a deal that finally fell by.
“I think Oracle is a great company and I think its owner is a tremendous guy, a tremendous person,” Trump mentioned at the time.
After the 2020 election, Ellison reportedly participated in a name that included Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Sean Hannity about contesting the outcomes and Trump’s loss, although his son David later told journalist Kara Swisher in 2022 when requested about the name that “everybody in my family believes it was a free and fair election and accepts the results of the election.”
Despite his seeming friendliness with Trump, it was South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott who attracted Ellison’s assist throughout the Republican primaries for the 2024 election, pouring tens of millions of dollars into Scott’s tremendous PAC in 2022 and attending Scott’s marketing campaign kickoff. But Ellison by no means adopted by with extra donations after Scott formally entered the race and failed to achieve momentum, in accordance with the New York Times. He did nevertheless, reportedly lobby Trump to decide on Scott as his vice-presidential operating mate.
Scott didn’t reply to requests for remark.
It was additionally round this time when Ellison threw his assist – and $1 billion – behind his good pal Elon Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter, which Musk mentioned he was motivated to do on free speech grounds. Less than a month after the deal closed, Musk lifted the ban on Trump’s account enacted by Twitter following the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
Ellison didn’t publicly endorse or donate to Trump throughout the 2024 election. But someday after Trump’s second inauguration, Ellison appeared alongside the President at the White House with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to announce a brand new three way partnership referred to as Stargate meant to develop synthetic intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
The prescient AI funding marked a major progress alternative for Oracle, a Silicon Valley titan that had change into comparatively boring as a cloud and database middleware supplier.
“In the case of Larry, it’s well beyond technology, he’s sort of CEO of everything,” Trump mentioned at the announcement.
Since then, Ellison has been an everyday customer to the White House, in accordance with Puck.
“Larry Ellison is one of them. He’s involved. He’s a great guy,” Trump said this month when talking about the TikTok deal.
While the TikTok deal was being labored by, Ellison was backing one other main media enterprise – his son David Ellisons firm Skydance buying the storied studio and media firm Paramount.
Skydance – the youthful Ellison’s manufacturing firm based in 2010 – first made a bid for Paramount in January 2024. The deal was anticipated to get regulatory approval in the first few months of 2025. But it became a prolonged merger assessment course of pockmarked by allegations of political interference, stemming from Trump’s scathing criticism of Paramount’s CBS News division together with a lawsuit over an interview CBS aired with then Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the 2024 election. In July, Paramount settled that swimsuit with Trump for $16 million – with none kind of apology. At the time, Paramount mentioned the lawsuit was fully separate from the Skydance transaction and regulatory approval course of.
But a number of weeks later, Skydance took one other step that may assist clean the path towards approval: Writing to the Federal Communications Committee that when it merged with Paramount it would undertake a “comprehensive review of CBS,” together with putting in an ombudsman to judge complaints of “bias or other concerns” at the information community and get rid of the firm’s range, fairness and inclusion practices.
Two days after these letters had been despatched, the FCC voted to approve the merger.
Speculation abounded over David Ellison’s politics, and whether or not they had shifted to assist clean the deal –final 12 months he had poured cash into serving to Democrats. In April and June of 2025, the youthful Ellison was noticed sitting ringside with Trump at UFC fights. (Shortly after the Skydance merger closed Paramount introduced it had acquired the unique media rights for UFC).
The sight of David Ellison alongside Trump might have stunned some, contemplating his latest historical past as a giant Democratic donor, who in 2022 advised Swisher “I am a socially liberal person myself”.
In the first few months of 2024, the youthful Ellison gave greater than $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee and tens of hundreds to state degree Democratic events, in accordance with federal data. His largest donation although got here in April of 2024, when he donated $929,600 to former President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, in accordance with CNBC.
By buying Paramount, David Ellison immediately turned one of the most vital leaders in Hollywood, the information media and tv. And he may achieve considerably extra affect quickly: Ellison’s firm is reportedly in superior talks to accumulate The Free Press, a conservative leaning publication, and may doubtlessly be making ready a bid for Warner Bros.
Discovery, NCS’s mum or dad firm.
Shortly earlier than the Skydance-Paramount merger was formally authorized, Trump claimed Skydance would give him an extra $20 million price of “advertising, PSAs or similar programming.” When pressed by reporters, Ellison has declined to touch upon Trump’s declare. A supply near David Ellison pushed again on any options of a political evolution tied to enterprise curiosity.
“There are a lot of assumptions being made about David – primarily a storyline that he has motivations through his interconnected businesses that will be somehow used to influence a political agenda. That is just a conspiracy theory,” the supply mentioned.
The youthful Ellison himself has tried to maneuver previous the politics, telling reporters throughout media availabilities after the Skydance/Paramount merger he has “no interest” shifting into the political spectrum.
“I’m excited to put my head down and do the work and build this business with this remarkable team up here, not sit up there and talk about, basically, how certain things are politicized,” he mentioned.
And like the political outlook his father as soon as espoused, the youthful Ellison advised reporters he desires his information outlet to cater to the heart.
“We want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the facts business. We really want to look at the 70% of the country that kind of would define themselves as center left to center right and really ensure that it’s a place that can be true to the legacy that we’re inheriting, and we’re going to invest behind that.”
NCS’s Brian Stelter contributed to this report.