From Database Pioneer to Billionaire: The Unconventional Journey of 81-Year-Old Larry Ellison and His New Wife

The Moment Larry Ellison Topped the Rich List

When the calendar flipped to September 10, 2025, Larry Ellison had every reason to celebrate. The 81-year-old Oracle co-founder officially claimed the title of world’s wealthiest individual, a milestone that saw his net worth spike to approximately $393 billion in a single trading session. This remarkable climb—over $100 billion in mere hours—dethroned Elon Musk, who dropped to second place with $385 billion. The catalyst? Oracle’s announcement of four blockbuster contracts totaling hundreds of billions, headlined by a five-year, $300 billion partnership with OpenAI. The market’s response was explosive: Oracle’s stock surged more than 40% in one day, marking its most significant daily gain since 1992.

How a College Dropout Built a Tech Powerhouse

Ellison’s ascent to the summit of global wealth is a classic American rags-to-riches narrative, albeit one marked by unconventional choices. Born in 1944 to an unmarried teenage mother in the Bronx, he was adopted and raised by relatives in Chicago in a financially constrained household. His formal education was fragmented—he enrolled at the University of Illinois but withdrew during his sophomore year following his adoptive mother’s death, later attempting the University of Chicago before dropping out after a single semester.

The turning point came in the early 1970s when Ellison secured a programming position at Ampex Corporation, a firm specializing in audio, video storage, and data processing systems. During his tenure there, he contributed to a classified project for the Central Intelligence Agency aimed at constructing an efficient database management system—a project that would bear the codename “Oracle.”

This experience crystallized Ellison’s vision. In 1977, at age 32, he partnered with former colleagues Bob Miner and Ed Oates to launch Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with just $2,000 in initial capital. Rather than inventing database technology from scratch, Ellison possessed the entrepreneurial acumen to recognize its commercial potential and the courage to bet everything on it. The trio’s flagship product, Oracle, went public on NASDAQ in 1986 and rapidly became a cornerstone of enterprise software.

Throughout his decades helming Oracle, Ellison assumed nearly every leadership role imaginable. He served as president from 1978 through 1996 and initially chaired the board beginning in 1990. A near-fatal surfing incident in 1992 barely slowed him—he returned to active involvement in 1995, maintaining iron-fisted control for the next decade before stepping down as CEO in 2014, though he retained the positions of Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.

Oracle’s Late-Game Play in the AI Revolution

While Oracle initially lagged behind AWS and Microsoft Azure during the cloud computing surge, the company’s deep expertise in databases and entrenched relationships with enterprise clients provided a foundation for a strategic pivot. By mid-2025, Oracle aggressively repositioned itself as an AI infrastructure heavyweight. The firm executed workforce reductions across hardware sales and legacy software divisions while simultaneously ramping up investments in data centers and AI computational facilities.

This recalibration proved prescient. With demand for generative AI infrastructure exploding, Oracle’s partnership with OpenAI and other emerging arrangements positioned it as an unlikely dark horse in an industry typically dominated by hyperscalers. The market’s enthusiasm for this transformation was palpable, rewarding the company with historically significant gains.

A Divided Empire: Silicon Valley Meets Hollywood

Ellison’s influence extends well beyond his personal holdings. His son, David Ellison, orchestrated the $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global (parent to CBS and MTV), with $6 billion sourced from Ellison family resources. This strategic move signaled the family’s ambitions to expand from technology into media and entertainment—a dual-domain empire spanning two generations.

The elder Ellison’s political footprint is equally expansive. A longtime Republican supporter and prolific political donor, he contributed $15 million to Senator Tim Scott’s Super PAC in 2022 and previously bankrolled Marco Rubio’s presidential run. In January 2025, he appeared at the White House alongside SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to unveil a $500 billion AI data center initiative, with Oracle technology designated as the project’s backbone.

The Man Behind the Fortune: Discipline, Adventure, and Matrimonial Surprises

Ellison’s personal life is a study in contrasts. He commands 98% ownership of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, maintains a portfolio of California estates, and pilots some of the world’s most luxurious yachts. His near-fatal surfing mishap in 1992 failed to dampen his appetite for adventure; instead, he channeled that energy into competitive sailing. In 2013, the Oracle Team USA sailing campaign he backed executed one of sport’s most stunning comebacks to claim America’s Cup glory. More recently, he founded SailGP, a professional catamaran racing league that now counts among its investors actress Anne Hathaway and soccer superstar Mbappé.

This lifestyle, while indulgent, coexists with monastic discipline. Former executives have testified to Ellison’s daily multi-hour exercise regimen, his abstinence from sugary beverages (consuming only water and green tea), and his regimented diet—a combination that leaves him appearing two decades younger than his chronological peers.

Larry Ellison’s Fifth Marriage: The Latest Chapter

The aspect of Ellison’s life that most captivated public attention in recent times is his romantic pursuits. With four marriages already behind him, the 81-year-old billionaire married Jolin Zhu in 2024, a Chinese-American woman 47 years his junior. The union remained quiet until a University of Michigan fundraising document disclosed it by referencing “Larry Ellison and his wife, Jolin.” Zhu, who was born in Shenyang, China, and graduated from the University of Michigan, represents his latest chapter in matrimonial adventures.

Online commentators have noted with humor that Ellison’s romantic inclinations mirror his sporting passions—both the waves and the dating scene appear to hold equal allure for him. Whether this marriage endures remains to be seen, but it underscores an unchanging pattern: the world’s newest richest man has little interest in conforming to expectations regarding how an octogenarian billionaire should behave.

Philanthropy on His Own Terms

In 2010, Ellison pledged to donate a minimum of 95% of his wealth, joining the ranks of pledgers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Yet his charitable approach diverges sharply from his peers. He eschews collaborative philanthropic ventures, instead preferring solitary strategic design. In 2016, he contributed $200 million toward establishing a cancer research center at USC. More recently, he committed resources to the Ellison Institute of Technology, a collaborative endeavor with Oxford University targeting breakthroughs in healthcare, sustainable agriculture, and clean energy.

The Enduring Legacy of a Maverick

At 81, Larry Ellison has finally reached the pinnacle of global wealth rankings—a destination he charted decades ago with a CIA database contract and methodically constructed through Oracle’s domination of enterprise software. His subsequent recognition of AI infrastructure opportunities demonstrates that aged tech pioneers retain the capacity to adapt and thrive.

Ellison remains the quintessential Silicon Valley maverick: stubborn, competitive, and unapologetically individualistic. His marriage to Jolin Zhu is merely the latest testament to a life spent resisting convention. The world’s richest designation may rotate among different hands in coming quarters, but for now, Ellison has demonstrated that the technological and business wisdom of his generation remains profoundly relevant in an AI-transformed world.