Larry Ellison’s 41% Oracle stake is starting to look like a shareholder problem

Larry Ellison owns roughly 41% of Oracle Corporation, making him one of the most concentrated mega-cap tech founders in the world. For context, Elon Musk holds around 20% of Tesla and Mark Zuckerberg controls about 14% of Meta. The math on a 50% drop hits differently at 41% Oracle shares peaked above $250 in June 2026. By mid-July 2026, they had fallen to below $133, a decline of nearly 50%. That erased more than $100 billion from Ellison’s personal net worth. The selloff was broadly a crisis of confidence in Oracle’s AI spending pace. The company has been pouring capital into AI infrastructure at a rate that made investors nervous, particularly after the stock had already run hard through 2025 on AI optimism. Ellison’s ownership stake grew from roughly 23% largely because Oracle has repurchased about 36% of its outstanding shares over the past 15 years. By shrinking the total share count, each remaining share represents a larger slice of the company. Ellison’s raw share count stayed roughly stable while the denominator shrank, so his percentage ownership climbed without him buying a single additional share. TikTok, Abu Dhabi, and the art of the unexpected pivot In September 2025, ...