Oracle's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and billionaire Larry Ellison has personally pledged $40.4 billion to back his son’s Paramount takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, aiming to keep the company’s prized Hollywood assets out of the hands of streaming giant Netflix.
According to a filing on Monday, the guarantee is intended to address the Warner Bros. board’s concerns about Paramount’s financing and the absence of complete backing from the Ellison family, which had previously made Netflix’s cash-and-stock offer more attractive.
Following the announcement, Warner Bros. shares rose nearly 4%, while Paramount’s climbed about 3%.
Larry Ellison net worth: How much does Oracle co-founder earn?
Larry Ellison became only the second individual in history to surpass a net worth of $400 billion in September this year, propelled by an AI-fueled surge in Oracle’s stock, according to Forbes.
Five years ago, Ellison made a permanent move to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he had purchased almost entirely in 2012 for $300 million. He served on Tesla’s board from 2018 until 2022, holding 45 million split-adjusted shares when he stepped down.
Ellison also controls close to 50% of media powerhouse Paramount Skydance, created following the approximately $28 billion (enterprise value) merger of Paramount and his son David’s Skydance in August 2025. He is also widely reported to own roughly 98% of Lanai, the sixth-largest island in Hawaii.
Who is Larry Ellison?
Born on August 17, 1944, in New York City to a Jewish mother, Florence Spellman, and an Italian-American biological father who served as a US Army Air Corps pilot, Larry Ellison is the chairman, chief technology officer, and cofounder of Oracle, where he owns about 40% of the company.
After leading Oracle for 37 years, Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014.
Ellison attended South Shore High School in Chicago before being accepted to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he began as a pre-medical student. During his time there, he was recognised as science student of the year. He left the university after his sophomore year without sitting for final exams following the death of his adoptive mother.
After spending the summer of 1966 in California, Ellison enrolled for a single term at the University of Chicago, studying physics and mathematics. It was there that he was first exposed to computer design. He later relocated to Berkeley, California, where he launched his career as a computer programmer, working for a number of different companies.