Oracle co-founder and tech billionaire Larry Ellison is scaling back plans for the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), Oxford research institute, following a significant restructuring.
This comes after the departure of Sir John Bell from EIT; Bell left his role as president in September, after clashing with Ellison and the institute’s chief operating officer over their “downgraded vision” for the project.
Bell has been replaced by the former President of the University of Michigan, Santa Ono, as global president of EIT. Ono remains based in the US, and it is unclear if he will move to Oxford.
The upheaval raises questions on Ellison’s projected £10 billion investment over the next decade. While Chancellor Rachel Reeves called it “a major vote of confidence in Oxford as a global hub for science and innovation”, those close to the institute warn the total spending is not guaranteed. Only £2 billion has been committed so far.
Despite this restructuring, the University of Oxford continues to receive £20 million from EIT annually, plus an additional one-time investment of £30 million to fund scholarships. Under the partnership (which started in 2023), Oxford can take stakes in spinouts from joint research and receive up to 120% back in funding where intellectual property is held exclusively by EIT.
According to more than a dozen people involved, Ellison has tightened control over operations and cut several initiatives, including pandemic preparedness programmes. The tech billionaire, who briefly became the world’s richest person earlier this year, has reduced EIT’s focus from 10-20 different projects to a handful of longer-term projects that are centred around AI and robotics, DNA sequencing, generative biology, and plant sciences. One former EIT employee said: “There’s been a bait and switch.”
EIT has outsourced several ventures, including an Africa Clinical Research Network, partly funded by the Gates Foundation. EIT has also eliminated much of its commercial strategy team and government relations unit. Some staff working on AI in government transferred to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which has received $350 million from Ellison since 2021, according to public filings.
Substantial investments have already been made by EIT in Oxford, with Ellison having purchased a six-acre site for £45 million in 2021. He also purchased the Eagle and Child pub for £8 million, in the hope that it will become a “vibrant social and intellectual hub” for scholars.
“EIT’s contribution and commitment to both Oxford University and the city of Oxford is clear in our recent investments,” the institute said in a statement.
Oxford University said in a public statement: “Our strategic alliance with [EIT] continues with real momentum to deliver support and investment in, as well as expansion of, our existing world-leading expertise.”