Larry Ellison, Not Elon Musk, Was The Tech Titan Who Defined 2025

When the year began, a billionaire with close ties to the White House was a lock for the most newsworthy tech titan of 2025. But 12 chaotic months later, Larry Ellison, not Elon Musk, can justifiably lay claim to the title.

The 81-year-old Oracle Corp. co-founder and chairman has been omnipresent — playing a role in just about every major business story of the year, from the frenzied artificial intelligence boom (or bubble) to the megadeals that are roiling Hollywood. Oracle even plans to take a stake in TikTok as part of a somewhat tortured plan to help Donald Trump save the popular video app. Along the way, Ellison’s fortune waxed and waned with Oracle’s stock price — a fever line for a volatile era.