The second richest person in the world, Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), is worth $393B in 2025. In 2010, he officially signed what’s called the “Giving Pledge”, which is a promise to give away 95% of his fortune. He only became the second richest person after the stock price of Oracle (and Tesla’s as well) skyrocketed due to the AI boom. And all eyes turned to his wealth and his pledge. So, will he give away his fortune? If so, where does he want to see his money? Charity or no charity? Learn more.
His Promise to Give Away Money
- It was in 2010 that Larry Ellison (over $28 billion, back then) signed the “Giving Pledge” as a promise to give away his fortune. Generally, it’s a promise by billionaires.
- Ellison promised to give away not 10, 20 or 30 but 95% of his fortune.
- However, his wealth would go into donations on his own terms (especially through his own projects), not like traditional charities.
The Ellison Institute of Technology (Eit)
This institute is based at the University of Oxford, and it is described as a for-profit philanthropic organisation (meaning, doing good, but it also works like a business).
Well, the Ellison Institute of Technology is Ellison’s main project. The big goals for this project are to work on:
- Healthcare
- Food insecurity
- Climate change
- Artificial intelligence
A $1.3 billion fund has been invested in creating a new campus in Oxford, with plans to open by 2027.
Leadership Shake-up at Eit
- For the same project in 2024, Ellison hired John Bell, a scientist, to lead research at EIT.
- However, in August 2025, on-boarded Santa Ono (former president of the University of Michigan), who joined John Bell to collaborate.
- Interestingly, two weeks later, John Bell announced his registration, stating that the project was “very challenging.”
Several reports hint at the rising tension about:
- How will Ellison want to make money from the research alone?
- Whether or not EIT can trust him to keep up his financial promises? What he has already given
When compared to other billionaires, Ellison gave less to the charity (directly). However, that’s not a small amount:
Key Donations of Ellison So Far:
- He donated about $200 million to the University of Southern California (USC) for a cancer research centre.
- He gave about $1 billion to the Ellison Medical Foundation (his own foundation), which worked towards ageing and disease prevention. However, that is now shut down.
- He promised a huge funding of $1.3 billion to the Oxford EIT campus (project underway).
His Future Commitment
- Giving back to society typically means charity, but not for Ellison. He said that he will eventually donate all of his fortune, but in his own way and at his own time.
- He doesn’t want to give away his fortune to public charities all at once. Rather, spend money on his personal projects like EIT.
- Unlike Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, he structured his donation (of billions) in a way that doesn’t resonate with a typical charity.