You may have noticed the news that circulated last year: Larry Ellison, at 81 years old, suddenly dethroned Elon Musk to become the richest man in the world. And not by a small amount: his fortune exploded by more than $100 billion in a single day. Fascinating, isn’t it?

But what really intrigues me about this man is how he managed to pull off this feat. Oracle announced several massive contracts, including a $300 billion, five-year partnership with OpenAI. The market reacted instantly, with Oracle’s stock soaring 40% in a single day. It was the biggest gain since 1992. Ellison knew how to spot the incoming AI wave and position Oracle exactly where it needed to be. From “an old-line software provider” to “the dark horse of AI infrastructure,” the transformation is spectacular.

But let’s go back to his origins. Born in 1944 in the Bronx, abandoned by his single mother at nine months old and left as an orphan, he was placed with an aunt in Chicago. Zero privileges, zero connections. He left college twice, traveled across the United States doing odd programming jobs. It was in the early 1970s at Ampex that he participated in a project for the CIA: designing a database system. That experience changed the course of his life.

In 1977, at age 32, he co-invested $2,000 with two colleagues to create Software Development Laboratories. Their bet? To turn a government project into a universal commercial product. They named it Oracle. And it worked. The company went public in 1986 and became a titan of enterprise software.

What’s fascinating is his ability to stay relevant for more than forty years. When cloud computing emerged, Oracle seemed to be lagging behind AWS and Azure. But thanks to its database advantages and its close relationship with enterprise clients, the company survived. And now, with the explosion of AI, it’s back with force.

On a personal level, Ellison is a complex figure. He owns 98% of Lanai Island in Hawaï, as well as several luxury properties and high-end yachts. But he also imposes a discipline that’s almost monastic. Between 1990 and 2000, he trained for several hours a day, drank only water and green tea, and strictly controlled his diet. At 81, he seems about twenty years younger than his peers.

He also has a passion for extreme sports. In 1992, he nearly died while surfing, but that didn’t stop him. He threw himself into sailing, created SailGP in 2018—a catamaran racing competition that now attracts investors like Anne Hathaway and Mbappé. He’s also passionate about tennis; he revitalized the Indian Wells tournament.

And then there’s his love life, which regularly makes headlines. In 2024, he quietly married Jolin Zhu, a woman of Chinese origin who graduated from the University of Michigan and is 47 years younger than him. The news came from a university donation document. Larry Ellison marrying a much younger woman reignited discussions about his private life. His four previous marriages and this new union show a man who, even at this age, continues to seek new experiences.

On the family front, his son David Ellison recently acquired Paramount Global for $8 billion, with financial support from the family. The father rules Silicon Valley; the son rules Hollywood. It’s an empire that now extends into technology and the media.

Politically as well, Ellison is active. He has been funding the Republican Party for a long time, supported Marco Rubio in 2015, and gave $15 million to Tim Scott in 2022. He appears regularly alongside the biggest names in tech and power.

On philanthropy, he signed the donation pledge in 2010, committing to give away at least 95% of his wealth. But unlike Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, he acts on his own. He donated $200 million to USC for a cancer research center and created the Ellison Institute of Technology with Oxford to study medicine, food, and climate. His way of giving is deeply personal, without following collective trends.

What strikes me about Ellison is this rare combination: a man who grew up with nothing, who built an empire, who stays competitive and stubborn at 81, and who never stops reinventing himself. He didn’t invent database technology, but he had the intuition for its commercial value and the courage to invest his entire fortune in it. And now, as AI is redefining the world, he’s found a way to stay at the center of the game.

The throne of the richest man in the world may soon change hands, but Ellison has proven that the legend of the old generation of tech giants is far from over. At his age, when most people think about retirement, he’s still thinking about conquering new heights.