Larry Ellison

Born

1944 · New York City, US (raised in Chicago)

Roots

Born to an unwed 19-year-old mother; adopted and raised by Jewish relatives in Chicago

Family

Working class

Raised by his great-aunt and her husband in a modest South Side apartment.

Education

University of Illinois, then University of Chicago (dropped out of both)

Started with

$2K

Software Development Laboratories' initial capital in 1977; $1,200 of it his own.

Affiliations & societies

None documented.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1966 · age 22
   Moves to California

   Works a string of programming jobs through the following decade.

2. 1975 · age 31
   A CIA database project

   At Ampex, works on a database contract code-named “Oracle.”

3. 1977 · age 33
   Founds Software Development Laboratories$2K

   With two colleagues from Ampex.

4. 1979 · age 35
   First commercial SQL database

   The CIA is among the first customers; the company later renames itself Oracle.

5. 1986 · age 41
   IPO

   Oracle lists one day before Microsoft.

6. 1990 · age 46
   Near collapse

   An accounting and sales crisis erases most of the stock's value; the company restructures and recovers.

7. 2012 · age 68
   Buys most of Lanai~$300M

   Acquires 98% of the Hawaiian island.

8. 2025 · age 81
   Briefly ranked world's richest

   Per Bloomberg, after an AI-driven surge in Oracle's stock.