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Oracle founder Larry Ellison on Monday pushed back on the notion that he could be moving to Florida after buying a mansion there — reaffirming his commitment to the Hawaiian island he owns.
Ellison, one of the wealthiest people in the world, told Oracle employees in an email viewed by Recode that he was tearing down an $80 million, 15,000-square-foot home that he recently purchased in Palm Beach. Ellison said the report that he had bought the luxurious home was “true” but that he was “tearing the house down and not moving to Florida.”
“Last year I moved from California to the island of Lana’i and became a resident of the State of Hawaii. I love it here and have no plans to move back to Florida, Texas, back to California ... or anywhere else.”
Among Silicon Valley billionaires, Ellison has always displayed a particular taste for the high life. He owns more than $1 billion in real estate; the Palm Beach estate was described by the Wall Street Journal as “a Tuscan-style property [that] has seven bedrooms, a home theater and a wine room. It also includes a tennis court and is one of a handful of properties in Florida where someone could land and take off in a helicopter from the estate, according to the listing.”
Ellison has been communicating very proactively with his employees about his whereabouts during the pandemic. Oracle itself has moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas. The Oracle leader then wrote his 135,000 employees in December to tell them that he had relocated to Lana’i, an island he purchased almost all of in 2012.
Ellison outlined for them several projects he has been pursuing on behalf of the local people in Lana’i, who are highly dependent on companies tied to the tech billionaire. Ellison is building a preschool and low-income housing on the island, he said, along with trying to grow and export more produce through his Sensei Farms company.
“My plan is to continue to live and work on Lana’i. Most of my work time will be spent Zooming for Oracle. But I will also make time for the many exciting community development projects here on Lana’i.”
“I don’t want to miss anything,” he concluded his note.
