In September, the cofounder and chairman of Oracle briefly overtook Elon Musk as the richest man in the world after his company's stock price soared on news of a blockbuster earnings report.
And in August, his son David successfully acquired Paramount, a major shake-up of the media industry that led to a string of new acquisitions and the ascent of Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS.
Nonetheless, Ellison is known for keeping a relatively low profile compared to other major tech billionaires.
He's been around for a long time, and over the years, he's made a number of interesting moves. In 2012, he bought an entire island in Hawaii, and he later purchased an airline to help facilitate travel to it.
He also owns several mansions, including properties in Malibu, Palm Beach, and Rhode Island.
And the billionaire has thrown around his money in another way: spending it on political campaigns.
Though he's one of several tech leaders who's fostered ties to Trump, Ellison does not appear to have ever made any direct, public contributions to the president's political operation, according to Federal Election Commission records.
He did host a fundraiser for Trump in 2020 on one of his properties, but has said that he did not attend the event himself.
But Ellison has spent big on some other major politicians — mostly Republicans.
Here are the politicians who've enjoyed Ellison's largesse over the years.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
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Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has been Ellison's biggest financial beneficiary by far.
From 2020 to 2023, as Scott geared up for a 2024 presidential bid, Ellison poured more than $35 million into Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC associated with Scott.
Ellison even attended Scott's presidential campaign launch event in South Carolina in 2023, where the senator gave the Oracle cofounder and shoutout and called him a "mentor" of his.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
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Long before he became Secretary of State, Marco Rubio was a freshman senator running for President of the United States.
During the 2016 presidential election, Ellison contributed $5 million to Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC that supported Rubio's presidential bid.
Ellison reportedly held a fundraiser for Rubio at his mansion in Woodside, a town in the San Francisco Bay Area, in May 2015.
Rubio ultimately dropped out of the race after losing his home state of Florida, and Trump went on to win the nomination and the presidency.
Former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah
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Long before Romney was a senator from Utah, Ellison was a supporter of his 2012 presidential candidacy.
Ellison donated $3 million to Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney super PAC, that year.
Romney, the onetime governor of Massachusetts, ultimately lost to then-President Barack Obama. He was later elected to the Senate in 2018 and retired after 2024.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
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Tim Scott isn't the only South Carolina politician that Ellison has supported.
The state's other Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, has also earned Ellison's financial support, including as recently as this year.
Ellison contributed $1 million to Security is Strength, a pro-Graham super PAC, in March of this year.
It was his largest publicly disclosed political donation since 2022. Graham is seeking reelection next year.
Ellison also made a $250,000 contribution to the same group in 2020, the last time that Graham was up for reelection.
A smattering of other politicians have received Ellison's money
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Ellison has donated to a variety of other politicians over the years.
In July, he gave almost $50,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm for Senate Republicans.
In 2020, he gave $1 million apiece to super PACs supporting Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and GOP candidate John James in Michigan. He also gave $1 million in 2022 to a super PAC that spent heavily in a US House primary in Tennessee.
While most of his contributions have been to Republicans, Ellison wasn't always just a GOP donor.
FEC records show that in the 1990s, he made significant donations to Democrats, including a total of $120,000 to the Democratic National Committee, when Bill Clinton was the party's presidential nominee.
In 2000, he was quoted as saying: "We should have amended the Constitution to elect Bill Clinton to a third term."
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