Oracle founder, chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison has adopted a trading plan that would allow him to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares. At the current market price, the stake is worth about $7.5 billion, according to a regulatory filing published on Friday.
The filing says the plan was adopted on June 22 and is due to expire on Oct. 24. CNBC notes that the move is unusual for Ellison, who has held onto a substantial stake in the company he started in 1977. FactSet data show he controls more than 40% of Oracle and would still own 1.1 billion shares even if he sold the full amount covered by the plan.
According to FactSet, Ellison has not sold more than 25,000 Oracle shares at any one time since the start of this century. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ellison, 82, has helped steer Oracle from a legacy software maker into a major player in artificial intelligence infrastructure. In results released on Thursday, the company topped estimates, helped by 121% year-over-year growth in cloud infrastructure revenue.
That expansion has come with a heavy debt load, however, adding to investor concerns. Oracle shares are down roughly 20% this year.
Ellison, the world’s seventh-richest person, also helped finance the 2025 merger of his son David Ellison’s production company, Skydance, with Paramount.
