{"id":9683,"date":"2026-04-04T23:05:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/9683\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:05:32","slug":"larry-ellison-dropped-out-of-college-twice-and-now-has-349-5-billion-how-he-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/9683\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Ellison Dropped Out of College Twice and Now Has $349.5 Billion \u2014 How He Did It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The secret to financial success is frequently sold under a variety of auspices, from rock-solid investment<\/a> planning to fiscal austerity and living below one\u2019s means.<\/p>\n

Despite stepping down from his post as Oracle Corporation\u2019s CEO over a decade ago, in 2014, Larry Ellison remained on as the software company\u2019s chief technology officer and executive chairman.<\/p>\n

Read More: If Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Wealth Were Evenly Distributed Across America, How Much Money Would Every Person Get?<\/a><\/p>\n

Check Out: 6 Big Shakeups Coming to Social Security in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

His wealth, too, has continued to accrue. According to Forbes\u2019 real-time billionaire\u2019s list<\/a>, Ellison is the second-richest man on Earth, pegged at a net worth of $349.5 billion as of Oct. 2. That ranking places him just below Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a notch above Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n

But how, exactly, did Ellison accumulate such massive wealth<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Described as a \u201cclassic rags-to-riches story\u201d by CEO Today<\/a>, Ellison was raised in Chicago by his aunt and uncle, and is noted as a two-time college dropout, first exiting the University of Illinois followed by the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he displayed a natural aptitude for programming and the attendant problem-solving and logic that accompanies the practice, and soon he joined up with tech companies<\/a> such as Ampex and Amdahl.<\/p>\n

While working for Ampex, Ellison ended up working on a project for the CIA (codenamed \u201cOracle\u201d), which would end up being fuel for his own entrepreneurial fire.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Ellison co-founded Software Development Laboratories, which would later assume the moniker of Oracle Corporation<\/a>. Oracle would go on to be the brand behind some of the world\u2019s most popular enterprise software offerings \u2014 notably, Oracle Database \u2014 and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

Explore More: If Bezos\u2019 Wealth Was Evenly Distributed Across the US, How Much Would We Get?<\/a><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s undeniable that the vast bulk of Ellison\u2019s wealth<\/a> (and the growth thereof) is attributable to his holdings in Oracle \u2014 he holds about a 40% stake in the company, per Forbes \u2014 he also has investments in Tesla, real estate and other ventures.<\/p>\n

Regarding the bulk of his investments<\/a>, in Oracle, the company\u2019s earnings results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 showed revenue growth of 12%. Plus, its share price has skyrocketed by more than 74% for the year as of Oct. 2. As a result, Ellison\u2019s holdings have blossomed over time.<\/p>\n

The lesson: Being a self-starter willing to teach yourself in-demand skill sets<\/a> and leverage these into business pursuits could pay off big. While you may not make billions, it\u2019s certainly a good place to begin if you\u2019re looking to pursue long-term wealth-building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The secret to financial success is frequently sold under a variety of auspices, from rock-solid investment planning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[167],"tags":[8768,8769,8766,813,618,1498,6909,8767],"class_list":["post-9683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-larry-ellison","tag-chief-technology-officer","tag-executive-chairman","tag-fiscal-austerity","tag-larry-ellison","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-oracle-corporation","tag-software-company","tag-software-development-laboratories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116348945864157555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}