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Oracle (Larry Ellison)
founded 1977· Company or fortune· Companies & fortunes
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Larry Ellison's software company, which sold the first commercial SQL relational database and grew into a business-software and cloud giant.
See it on the Innovation & Wealth map →What happened
Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded a small software firm in Santa Clara in 1977. They built on IBM researcher Edgar Codd's 1970 'relational' idea: data stored in linked tables and queried with a standard language, SQL. Their product, Oracle, reached market in 1979, ahead of IBM's own. Oracle earned money from database licenses plus yearly maintenance fees of about 22%, then business software, acquisitions such as PeopleSoft and Sun, and cloud computing.
Impact on society and the economy
Relational databases run banking, airline, retail and government records. Oracle's aggressive sales and license audits made it profitable and unpopular with customers. In 2025 Ellison briefly became the world's richest person; estimates vary.
How we know
Codd's 1970 paper, Oracle's filings since its 1986 public offering, Mike Wilson's biography The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison (1997), and Bloomberg and Forbes wealth indexes.
Still debated
Whether Oracle's 2025 surge on AI cloud contracts, including a reported $300 billion OpenAI deal, will last depends on AI demand that remains uncertain.
Connections (2)
▸Oracle (Larry Ellison) became a major cloud provider in AI data center building boomWell documented
The connection
A late cloud entrant behind Amazon, Microsoft and Google, Oracle won huge contracts to build and rent AI computing. It is a partner in OpenAI's Stargate, and in September 2025 its booked future revenue jumped to $455 billion, reportedly including a $300 billion OpenAI deal. Its shares soared, briefly making Larry Ellison the world's richest person.
When and how
Oracle's Austin headquarters and the first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas, 2024–2025, working with OpenAI and SoftBank.
How we know
Oracle's earnings filings report the backlog; the OpenAI contract's size comes from press reports, chiefly The Wall Street Journal, not full disclosure.
Debates
Whether money-losing OpenAI can pay for all it has committed, and whether Oracle's heavy borrowing for data centers will pay off.
▸Oracle (Larry Ellison) commercialized database research from IBM under Thomas J. WatsonWell documented
The connection
In 1970 IBM researcher Edgar Codd published the relational model for storing data in linked tables. IBM's San Jose lab built a prototype, System R, and published papers on it and its query language, SQL, but was slow to sell a product, partly to protect its older IMS database. Ellison's team read the papers and shipped Oracle first, in 1979.
When and how
IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory, 1970–1979, in the IBM the Watsons built (Thomas Watson Jr. was chief executive until 1971); Oracle in Santa Clara, 1977–79.
How we know
Codd's 1970 paper and the System R papers are public, and Ellison has openly said Oracle was built from IBM's published research.
Debates
Why IBM let a start-up beat it to market is debated: protecting IMS revenue, internal politics or caution. Codd felt IBM undervalued his work.