Larry Ellison, the richest man in the world: between five marriages and a much younger Chinese wife

On September 10, 2025, the world changed its economic leader. Larry Ellison, an 81-year-old octogenarian, officially ousted Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index. In just one day, his fortune surged by over $100 billion to reach $393 billion. But beyond the staggering numbers, it’s the personal life of this Silicon Valley entrepreneur that captivates: five marriages, a Chinese wife 47 years his junior, an insatiable passion for adventure, and a nearly monastic personal discipline. How did an abandoned orphan build such an unbreakable tech empire? And why, at over eighty years old, does he continue to redefine his legend?

The Unconventional Wife and a Billionaire’s Five Love Stories

In 2024, a shocking revelation rocked the business world: Larry Ellison secretly married Jolin Zhu, a Chinese woman born in Shenyang and a University of Michigan graduate. This union, revealed through university donation documents, is more than just a romantic affair. At an age when most men consider their succession, Ellison chooses to embark on a new marital adventure—an astonishing contrast to his obsessive tech temperament.

This Chinese wife marks Ellison’s fifth marriage, a series of relationships reflecting both his inconsistencies and his constants. Each marriage had a motive—sometimes personal, often intertwined with his professional ambitions. Rumors about his love life are almost as prolific as the data managed by his Oracle databases. Critics joke that, for Ellison, love waves and ocean crests hold the same hypnotic allure.

This late marriage reveals a man who refuses to rest, who defies age conventions. While other philanthropists withdraw from public life, Ellison continues to write his story in capital letters, including in the personal arena where his wife holds a unique place in his life portfolio.

From Young Orphan to Architect of Global Databases

Larry Ellison’s story begins in anonymity and hardship. Born in 1944 in the Bronx, New York, to a nineteen-year-old mother unable to keep him, Ellison was entrusted to an aunt in Chicago at nine months old. His adoptive father was a modest civil servant; his family environment was marked by economic restrictions.

Education was supposed to be his escape route, but Ellison repeatedly rejected it. Admitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he dropped out in his second year after his adoptive mother died. He then tried the University of Chicago but left after one semester. It was as if something in him rejected institutional walls.

Instead of pursuing a conventional degree, Ellison embarked on an odyssey: sporadic programming jobs in Chicago, then a road trip to Berkeley, California, a hotbed of counterculture and technological innovation. “People there seemed freer and smarter,” he later said. This choice proved prophetic.

In the early 1970s, Ellison took a decisive step at Ampex Corporation, a company specializing in audio-video storage and data processing. As a programmer, he participated in a transformative project: designing a database system capable of managing CIA data, called “Oracle.” Although classified by the CIA, this experience became the seed of his future fortune.

In 1977, at age 32, Ellison invested $1,200 alongside former colleagues Bob Miner and Ed Oates to found Software Development Laboratories (SDL). Their first major strategic decision was to commercialize a universal database system based on the relational model developed for the CIA. They simply called it “Oracle.”

Ellison was not the original inventor of database technology, but he grasped its commercial essence with clarity few possessed. He risked all his nascent fortune to open this market. His leadership at Oracle was distinctive: president from 1978 to 1996, then chairman of the board from 1990 to 1992, he kept the reins of the company firmly in hand.

In 1986, Oracle went public on NASDAQ, becoming a rising star in enterprise software. The following decades saw Oracle dominate the database market, though the rise of cloud computing with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure posed a serious challenge to the old tech guard.

Accelerating Toward Ultimate Wealth: Oracle and the AI Wave

The real turning point that propelled Ellison to the top of the global economy began with the revolution of generative artificial intelligence. On September 10, 2025, Oracle announced four major contracts in the past quarter, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. The five-year partnership with OpenAI alone was valued at $300 billion. This announcement caused a stock market upheaval: Oracle’s stock soared over 40% in a single day—the biggest daily jump since 1992.

This wasn’t just an ordinary commercial deal. It symbolized Oracle’s reconquest of its cloud rivals. For years, Oracle had appeared slow compared to the meteoric rise of AWS and Azure. But in terms of infrastructure for massive databases and deep customer relationships, Oracle held an unbeatable strategic advantage. When the industry began demanding colossal data centers to power AI models, Oracle had exactly the winning ticket.

In summer 2025, the company completed its strategic transformation: massive layoffs in traditional software and hardware sales divisions—thousands of employees—while investments in AI infrastructure exploded. Oracle was transforming before Wall Street’s eyes, shifting from an old software supplier to the dark horse of generative AI infrastructure.

The Empire Expands: Family in Silicon Valley and Hollywood

Ellison’s wealth isn’t confined to himself; it proliferates through his vast family ecosystem. His son David Ellison made a spectacular acquisition by taking over Paramount Global, parent company of CBS and MTV, for a modest $8 billion. The Ellison family contributed $6 billion of that, marking a dynastic expansion into Hollywood.

This generational strategy is clever: the father dominates Silicon Valley via Oracle and AI infrastructure, while the son builds a media empire in Los Angeles. Together, they weave a power network spanning from code to screens.

In politics, Ellison has never hidden his Republican leanings. He regularly funds campaigns aligned with his interests: in 2015, financial support for Marco Rubio; in 2022, a $15 million donation to the super PAC of Senator Tim Scott. In January 2025, Ellison appeared in person at the White House alongside Masayoshi Son (SoftBank CEO) and Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO), announcing the colossal construction of an AI data center network valued at $500 billion. Oracle would serve as the technological backbone of this architecture. This gesture was as much political strategy as business move.

Hidden Self-Discipline of a “Child Prodigy”: Sports, Luxury, and Youthful Vitality

A striking contradiction characterizes Larry Ellison: unrestrained luxury coexists with nearly monastic self-discipline. He owns 98% of Lanai Island in Hawaii, luxury California homes, and world-class yachts. Simultaneously, his personal lifestyle could impress an Olympic athlete.

His visceral obsession with water and wind manifests through sailing and surfing. In 1992, a surfing fall nearly took him out; instead of quitting, Ellison intensified his practice. He invested heavily in the America’s Cup, supporting Oracle Team USA, which in 2013 made a spectacular comeback in the finals—one of the greatest sailing epics. His enthusiasm for nautical competition led him to found SailGP in 2018, a high-speed catamaran racing series now attracting prestigious investors: actress Anne Hathaway and footballer Kylian Mbappé are among supporters.

Tennis is his other great passion. He revived the Indian Wells tournament in California, rebranding it as the “fifth Grand Slam.” His peers say that sport isn’t just a hobby—it’s the secret to his perpetual youth. Former executives who worked under him report that between 1990 and 2000, Ellison dedicated several hours daily to physical training. His diet excluded sugary drinks, favoring water and green tea with monastic rigor. This lifestyle allowed him, at 81, to maintain a condition described as twenty years younger than his peers.

This combination—boundless luxury and monastic discipline—embodies Ellison’s enigma. For him, bodily risk and passion aren’t contradictions but coexisting dimensions of a fully lived life. Ocean waves and romantic arenas offer him the same existential thrill.

Personal Philanthropy: When Charity Resists Conformity

In 2010, Ellison signed the “donation vow,” committing to give at least 95% of his wealth to charitable causes. Unlike Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, he never sought collective approval or moral influence through philanthropy. Declaring to the New York Times that he “cherished his solitude and refused to be influenced by others’ thoughts,” Ellison charted his own path as a benefactor.

In 2016, he contributed $200 million to the University of Southern California to establish an oncology research center. Recently, he announced transferring substantial portions of his fortune to the Ellison Institute of Technology, co-founded with Oxford University, aimed at studying medical, food, and climate issues.

His public statements on his philanthropic intentions remain intensely personal. “We need to develop a new generation of medicines to save humanity, build sustainable agricultural systems, and develop renewable and efficient energies,” he said. The tone reveals a man who envisions the future according to his own vision rather than following the consensus of his philanthropic peers.

Epilogue: The Victory of an Old Guard Turned Pioneer

At eighty-one, Larry Ellison has finally donned the crown of the world’s richest. His journey from orphan boy to database magnate, then to architect of a global AI infrastructure, reads like a picaresque novel relived at each chapter.

Five marriages, a significantly younger Chinese wife, a Hawaiian estate, a revolutionary sailing tournament, behind-the-scenes political influence, ascetic discipline, and resolutely personal philanthropy—these are the traits of a life few would dare to live. He never sought respectability, conformity, or collective approval.

The global economic throne could shift again. But for now, Ellison has proven that the old generation of tech titans does not give up easily. In an era where AI redraws the contours of the digital world, his victory reminds us that vision, boldness, and perpetual reinvention can still triumph.