Lawrence Joseph Ellison, born on August 17, 1944, in the Bronx, New York, is a prominent American businessman, entrepreneur, and the co-founder of the software giant Oracle Corporation. As of early 2026, he serves as the executive chairman and chief technology officer (CTO) of Oracle, having pivoted the company from its origins as a database management firm to a leader in cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence. Ellison is widely recognized as one of the most significant figures in the history of Silicon Valley, known for his aggressive business strategy, intense competitive drive, and influential role in shaping enterprise computing. Ellison’s early life was marked by displacement and personal struggle. Born to a young single mother, Florence Spellman, he was sent to Chicago at the age of nine months after contracting pneumonia. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison, who adopted him. Growing up in a middle-class, primarily Jewish neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Ellison displayed an early aptitude for math and science. He enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was named science student of the year, but he withdrew after his sophomore year following the death of his adoptive mother. He later attended the University of Chicago for a brief period before moving to Berkeley, California, in 1966, where he began a career as a programmer. The foundation of Ellison’s professional legacy began in the 1970s while he was working at the electronics company Ampex. During his tenure there, he worked on a database project for the CIA codenamed "Oracle." Inspired by a research paper written by IBM computer scientist Edgar F. Codd, which detailed the theoretical framework for relational database management systems, Ellison recognized the commercial potential of this technology. In 1977, he joined with colleagues Bob Miner and Ed Oates to found Software Development Laboratories (SDL), which would eventually be renamed Oracle Corporation. The company’s flagship product, the Oracle database, revolutionized the industry by organizing vast amounts of information in a way that allowed for efficient storage and quick retrieval, making it indispensable for Fortune 500 companies. Under Ellison’s leadership as CEO—a position he held for 37 years until 2014—Oracle expanded its dominance through rapid growth, strategic acquisitions, and the development of comprehensive software suites. In 2014, Ellison stepped down as CEO to transition into the roles of executive chairman and CTO, allowing him to focus on the company's long-term technical vision. In the years that followed, particularly in the 2020s, he steered Oracle heavily toward cloud computing and, more recently, artificial intelligence. By partnering with organizations such as OpenAI, Ellison positioned Oracle as a key provider of the heavy-duty infrastructure required for modern AI development. His leadership has seen the company transition from its traditional, on-premise software roots to a modern, cloud-centric model, a move that significantly bolstered Oracle’s market standing. Beyond his business career, Ellison is known for a lifestyle that often intersects with his massive personal wealth. He is an avid sailor, having participated in professional yachting and major races, and holds a deep interest in aviation and high-end real estate. His most notable real estate endeavor is his acquisition of 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi in 2012, which he has described as a laboratory for sustainability. He has also been a significant investor in other sectors, including recent moves into media through his son David’s production company, Skydance Media, and its merger with Paramount Global. Ellison has long been a significant, albeit private, philanthropist. In 2010, he signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate a vast majority of his wealth to charitable causes. His philanthropic efforts have been channeled primarily through the Ellison Institute of Technology, which focuses on global challenges such as healthcare, food insecurity, and climate change. Throughout his career, Ellison has remained a polarizing but undeniably influential figure, maintaining a significant ownership stake in Oracle and continuing to actively steer the company’s trajectory well into his eighth decade. His professional journey, from a college dropout coding on mainframes to a central architect of the modern data-driven economy, remains a cornerstone of the technology industry’s history.