Who is Larry Ellison? Spouse, kids, and more details explored as Oracle co-founder briefly becomes richest man in the world

Larry Ellison has become the richest man in the world, briefly surpassing Elon Musk, who held the title for several years.

Larry Ellison’s net worth has reached approximately $393 billion on the morning of September 10, 2025. Whereas Musk showed a net worth of about $385 billion, as reported by the BBC, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A September 10 publication by Forbes reported that Larry had become $110 billion richer, estimating his worth to be $406 billion.

Reports attributed the surge in the tech entrepreneur’s wealth to a massive rise in the stock of his company, Oracle, which soared about 36% to a record high in September 2025. Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were others who were included in the top rich individuals in the world.

Larry Ellison is the co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation. He co-founded the company in 1977 and served as its CEO until September 2014. Under his leadership, the company grew from a startup to one of the largest databases in the world.

Continue to read more about him.

All we know about Larry Ellison’s life

Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 along with Bob Miner and Ed Oates. The company was originally called Software Development Laboratories. It was based in Santa Clara, California.

Later, the company changed its name to Relational Software, Inc., and then to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1983. The name was derived from a CIA project code name that the founders had worked on earlier.

Larry Ellison’s birth name is Lawrence Joseph Ellison. He was born on August 17, 1944, which makes him 81 years old, according to a report in CEO Today magazine. According to Daily Mail, he has been married six times. His sixth wife is Jolin Zhu, a native of China who moved to the US to pursue her higher studies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of Michigan.

Zhu is reportedly 33 years old, which makes her 48 years younger than Larry Ellison. It is not clear how they met, but she has been seen with the billionaire on several occasions. The pair was first spotted at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, in 2017.

They maintained a low profile until they were referred to as husband and wife by the University of Michigan in a statement in November 2024. In its announcement, Champions Circle, its booster group, thanked “Larry and his wife Jolin” who provided “invaluable guidance and financial resources.”

Their meeting came following the separation of Ellison from his fifth wife, a Ukrainian model, Nikita Kahn, in 2016. They divorced in 2020, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

Larry Ellison’s first marriage to Adda Quinn lasted from 1967 to 1974. In 1977, he married Nancy Wheeler Jenkins; however, it lasted only for a year, resulting in their divorce in 1978.

In 1983, Ellison married for a third time to Barbara Boothe. She worked as a receptionist in one of Larry’s companies. They welcomed two children, David and Megan Ellison. They ended their marriage in 1986.

His fourth marriage was to romance novelist Melanie Craft. The two tied the knot in 2003. But, like the rest of his marriages, it also failed, and the couple divorced in 2010.

His marriage to Nikita Kahn came in 2010. In addition to modelling, she is an actress and an animal rights activist. But it also resulted in their divorce in 2020. He is reported to have married Jolin Zhu in 2023, as per Daily Express U.S.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback