08/31/2023
Who is Larry Ellison, the billionaire backing Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential run?
Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, “was the first” CEO of a major firm in the 1990’s “to risk everything” on the idea that the internet would radically reshape the software business, according to a biographer. It made him the world’s richest person for a time.
Now, the 78-year-old billionaire — currently ranked by Forbes as fourth-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $127 billion — is making another hefty wager, this time on an underdog presidential candidate with big upside.
Ellison is preparing to spend up to $60 million to help Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., run for president, CNBC reported last week.
That’s double the $30 million that Ellison gave to Scott’s super-PAC in the 2022 election cycle. Scott’s group directed much of that money to help Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
Scott announced his candidacy for president last week. He already has $22 million in his campaign account.
The money from Ellison, the owner of Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, means that Scott is likely to stay in this race for a long while.
“Campaigns … end because they run out of money, which is the main reason, or they run out of time,” Stuart Stevens, a veteran Republican campaign consultant, said recently on MSNBC.
Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, ranked by Forbes as fourth-wealthiest person in the world, is preparing to spend up to $60 million to help Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., run for president, CNBC reported last week.
