 "Oracle chairman Larry Ellison is a titan of Silicon Valley. Reuters")
Larry Ellison and his son David could soon be among the most powerful men in America.
Not just for his wealth alone, though the Oracle chairman did recently briefly displace Elon Musk as the world’s richest man, but because Ellison, 81, a titan of Silicon Valley, has US President Donald Trump’s ear.
He and his son David, a Hollywood producer, are also poised to take over a number of media platforms that could influence what millions of people watch in the United States and around the world.
Let’s take a closer look.
Relationship with Trump
To examine Ellison’s place in America, one must analyse his relationship with Trump. Ironically, Ellison in the 1990s used to be a huge backer of Bill Clinton. He even joked about amending the US Constitution to get Bill Clinton a third term in office.
However, like much of Silicon Valley, Ellison’s positions have undergone a massive change over the past decade. In 2016, Ellison backed Marco Rubio, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on his failed campaign. He did not support either Clinton or Trump in 2016.
It was in 2020 that Ellison hosted his first fundraiser for Trump – though he was at pains to point out that he did not attend. Ellison also joined the committee to revive America’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was during Trump’s first term that Ellison joined the conversation about buying TikTok with Walmart as a partner. “I think Oracle is a great company and I think its owner is a tremendous guy, a tremendous person,” Trump said at the time. However, that deal ultimately fell through.
Ellison in 2020 even reportedly joined a call with US Senator Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Sean Hannity about contesting the results and Trump’s defeat to Biden. Ellison, though he has not publicly donated to Trump or publicly endorsed him during the 2024 election, was part of the
Stargate project the president announced after his return to the White House.
“In the case of Larry, it’s well beyond technology, he’s sort of CEO of everything,” Trump said at the time. The president also described him as “an amazing man and an amazing person”. Since then, Ellison has been a frequent Trump guest at the White House.
While Ellison’s role within the Trump administration remains known to few, he is reportedly involved with political decisions, bringing in talent and playing a key part behind the scenes. So much so that many in Trump’s inner circle now refer to Ellison as the ‘shadow president’.
A media power player
But that’s not all Ellison is doing. The mega-billionaire is also planning to reshape the United States’ media ecosystem. Part of this is by being part of the group that is planning to acquire TikTok – which makes sense given that Oracle already handles its US operations.
Oracle, under the deal, will likely ‘retrain’ TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, known as the secret sauce, for US users – giving him control over what millions of people see, hear, and watch every day.
This has real-world implications too. Many in the United States blame TikTok for growing anti-Israeli sentiment, particularly among young people, over videos and images of the war that have been beamed around the world.
However, that’s just a piece of the puzzle. Ellison and his son David are attempting to build a media empire to rival the Murdochs at their peak. David, a Hollywood producer, owns Skydance – the production company that produces the popular Mission Impossible movies helmed by Tom Cruise, among a slew of other projects – and last month bought the iconic media firm Paramount.
The bid, which was made in January 2024, came to fruition after much controversy. This came after Trump had slammed CBS News, the iconic news network owned by Paramount, over an interview it did with Kamala Harris during the 2024 polls.
Trump had accused the news network of ‘deceptively editing’ the interview to favour Democrats. Paramount in July settled the case with Trump for $16 million. Many viewed this settlement as an outright bribe and an attempt to curry favour with the US president as the deal, which needed government approval, hung in the balance.
Indeed, comedian Stephen Colbert even claimed that this was a ‘big, fat bribe’ on his late-night comedy show on CBS. Days later, Colbert’s show was cancelled by the network – which Paramount insisted had nothing to do with the deal. Again, many raised questions whether the network had been pressured by the Trump administration to cancel the comedian, who has been a fierce critic of Trump.
In the meantime, Skydance wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which regulates broadcasting in the US and is led by Trump loyalist Brendan Carr – promising a “comprehensive review of CBS” as well as installing a representative to investigate claims of “bias or other concerns” at the news firm.
It also said it would do away with the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, which have been a target of the Trump administration. Interestingly, the FCC just days later approved the merger. But Ellison and his progeny aren’t about to stop. There are now reports that the father and son could make a bid for Warner Brothers-Discovery – which owns CNN as well as HBO. This would make Skydance and Paramount one of the world’s biggest media conglomerates.
What do critics say?
However, politicians and media groups are pushing back.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has demanded that any future Paramount-Warner Brothers merger be denied, claiming it would be a “dangerous concentration of power”.
Democrats in the House are already investigating the Skydance-Paramount merger. In the Senate, Warren is said to be working with Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden to do so.
“The Ellison duo taking over both CBS and CNN, as well as controlling a major social media network like TikTok, would be dangerous for democracy. And given their closeness to the Trump regime, that seems to be the point,” the media watch group Fair has said.
Robert Weissman of Public Citizen has claimed that any such proposed merger “should plainly be struck down” on antitrust grounds – both on ideology and harm to the consumer.
However, with Trump in office for another three years, it appears there is little the Democrats can do.
With inputs from agencies