Oracle overview
Oracle builds the databases, business applications and cloud infrastructure that many large organizations depend on. Its flagship product, Oracle Database, has stored bank ledgers, telecom billing records and government data since the late 1970s. Around it, Oracle sells Fusion Cloud applications for finance, human resources and supply chains, industry software for hospitals, banks and hotels, and Exadata database machines. Acquisitions also made it the steward of the Java programming language and the open-source MySQL database, and the owner of NetSuite, a cloud ERP suite for small and midsize companies.
The company began in Santa Clara, California, in 1977, when Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates, who had worked together at the electronics maker Ampex, set up Software Development Laboratories. Building on Edgar F. Codd’s relational model, which IBM researchers had described but IBM had not yet turned into a product, they shipped one of the first commercial SQL databases in 1979. They called it Oracle, the code name of a CIA-funded project Ellison had worked on at Ampex, and the company later took that name for itself and went public in 1986.
Oracle expanded largely by buying rivals and complementary businesses. It won control of PeopleSoft in 2005 after a long hostile bid, then added Siebel Systems, Hyperion and BEA Systems. The 2010 purchase of Sun Microsystems brought Java, MySQL, the Solaris operating system and a server hardware business, and later deals added NetSuite in 2016 and the health records company Cerner, bought for about $28.3 billion in 2022 and now run as Oracle Health.
Oracle entered the public cloud market years after Amazon, Microsoft and Google, but its rebuilt platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, has become its fastest-growing business as AI developers rent large GPU clusters. OCI runs OpenAI’s flagship Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas, and multiyear AI contracts lifted Oracle’s remaining performance obligations, a measure of contracted future revenue, to $638 billion by the end of May 2026. Revenue for the fiscal year that ended that month reached $67.4 billion.
Oracle moved its headquarters from Redwood Shores, California, to Austin, Texas, in 2020, and Ellison has said a riverfront campus planned for Nashville, Tennessee, will eventually become its world headquarters. Since September 2025 the company has been run by two chief executives, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, with Ellison serving as chairman and chief technology officer.
Software by Oracle
5 products profiled, from Oracle Database (1979) to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (2016).
- Oracle DatabaseMulti-model relational database for enterprise transactions and analytics Databases 1979 Enterprise licensing
- JavaObject-oriented programming language and cross-platform runtime Developer Tools 1995 Free and open source
- MySQLOpen-source relational database long used to power web applications Databases 1995 Free and open source
- NetSuiteCloud ERP suite for growing and midsize businesses ERP, HR & Operations 1998 Subscription
- Oracle Cloud InfrastructureOracle’s public cloud for computing, databases and large AI clusters Cloud & Infrastructure 2016 Usage-based
Oracle history and milestones
- 1977
Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates found Software Development Laboratories in Santa Clara, California.
- 1979
Now called Relational Software, the company ships Oracle Version 2, one of the first commercial SQL databases.
- 1986
Oracle goes public on the Nasdaq stock market in March.
- 2005
Oracle completes its takeover of PeopleSoft after a hostile bid that began in 2003.
- 2010
Oracle completes its purchase of Sun Microsystems, gaining Java, MySQL, Solaris and Sun’s server business.
- 2014
Larry Ellison steps down as CEO and becomes chairman and CTO; Safra Catz and Mark Hurd become co-CEOs.
- 2016
Oracle buys NetSuite for about $9.3 billion and launches the cloud service that becomes Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
- 2020
Oracle moves its headquarters from Redwood Shores, California, to Austin, Texas.
- 2022
Oracle completes its roughly $28.3 billion acquisition of Cerner, which becomes Oracle Health.
- 2024
Larry Ellison says a new Nashville campus will eventually be Oracle’s world headquarters.
- 2025
Oracle agrees to build up to 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate AI capacity for OpenAI and names Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia co-CEOs.
- 2026
Oracle takes a 15 percent stake in the TikTok USDS joint venture and reports fiscal-year revenue of $67.4 billion.
Who founded Oracle?
Larry Ellison
Co-founder; CEO from 1977 to 2014, now chairman and CTO
Larry Ellison was born in New York City in 1944 and grew up in Chicago, where he studied at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago without completing a degree. He moved to California and worked as a programmer, including at Ampex, where he met Bob Miner and Ed Oates. Because his partners were the stronger engineers, Ellison took charge of sales, and he remained Oracle’s chief executive until 2014, overseeing deals such as the takeovers of PeopleSoft and Sun Microsystems.
Since 2014 Ellison has served as chairman and chief technology officer, and he has been closely involved in Oracle’s push into cloud infrastructure and AI. He controls more than 40 percent of Oracle’s stock, owns most of the Hawaiian island of Lanai and helped finance the 2025 merger of Skydance Media, run by his son David Ellison, with Paramount.
Bob Miner
Co-founder; led Oracle database development from 1977 to 1992
Bob Miner was born in 1941 in Cicero, Illinois, the son of Assyrian immigrants from Iran, and earned a mathematics degree from the University of Illinois in 1963. He was Larry Ellison’s supervisor at Ampex before the two started the company that became Oracle.
As Oracle’s lead engineer in its early years, Miner wrote much of Oracle Version 3 himself, and he ran product design and development for the database until 1992. He opposed the very long hours that Oracle’s hard-driving culture demanded, believing his engineers should have time for their families. He left the board in 1993 and died of mesothelioma in 1994 at age 52.
Ed Oates
Co-founder; Oracle executive until he retired in 1996
Ed Oates earned a mathematics degree from San Jose State University in 1968 and worked at Singer, Ampex and Memorex, with a period as a draftee at a U.S. Army personnel information systems command, before co-founding Software Development Laboratories with Larry Ellison and Bob Miner in 1977.
Oates stayed with Oracle through its growth into a public company and retired in 1996. He then bought Audible Difference, a high-end home theater store whose customers included Ellison and Steve Jobs, and sold it in 1999.
How Oracle makes money
Oracle reports four lines of business. The largest in fiscal 2026 was cloud, at $34.0 billion, which combines subscriptions to software-as-a-service products such as Fusion Cloud ERP, NetSuite and Oracle Health with infrastructure services on OCI, where customers pay by usage or sign multiyear capacity contracts. Software, mainly database and middleware licenses plus the annual support fees attached to them, brought in $24.5 billion and is shrinking slowly as customers move to the cloud. Services contributed $5.7 billion and hardware such as Exadata systems $3.1 billion.
Growth now depends heavily on AI infrastructure. Companies such as OpenAI commit to renting GPU clusters for years, and Oracle finances the data centers with borrowing, stock sales and, in some contracts, customer prepayments or chips supplied by the customer. Oracle also sells its database as a managed service inside Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, which lets it earn cloud revenue from customers whose other applications run on rival clouds.
Who owns and runs Oracle?
Oracle has had two chief executives since September 2025: Clay Magouyrk, who joined from Amazon Web Services in 2014 and later became president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Mike Sicilia, who previously led Oracle Industries. Safra Catz, CEO or co-CEO from 2014, became executive vice chair of the board. Co-founder Larry Ellison is chairman and chief technology officer and controls more than 40 percent of the shares, making him by far the largest shareholder of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange as ORCL.
- Larry EllisonCo-founder, chairman and chief technology officer
- Clay MagouyrkChief executive officer
- Mike SiciliaChief executive officer
- Safra CatzExecutive vice chair of the board; CEO from 2014 to 2025
Oracle: frequently asked questions
Who founded Oracle?
Oracle was founded in 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates, former colleagues at the electronics company Ampex. They started it in Santa Clara, California, as Software Development Laboratories and later renamed it after their database product. Ellison was CEO until 2014, Miner led database development until 1992, and Oates retired in 1996.
Who owns Oracle?
Oracle is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ORCL, so it is owned by its shareholders. Co-founder Larry Ellison is by far the largest, controlling more than 40 percent of the stock as of 2026. The remaining shares are held by institutional investors such as mutual funds and pension funds, and by individual investors.
Who is the CEO of Oracle?
Oracle has two CEOs, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, who were promoted in September 2025. Magouyrk joined from Amazon Web Services in 2014 and later became president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, while Sicilia led Oracle’s industry applications business. They succeeded Safra Catz, who became executive vice chair of the board. Larry Ellison remains chairman and chief technology officer.
Where is Oracle headquartered?
Oracle is headquartered in Austin, Texas, where it moved in December 2020 after decades in Redwood Shores, California. In 2024 Larry Ellison said a campus planned on the East Bank of the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee, will eventually become Oracle’s world headquarters, but Oracle’s 2026 filings with securities regulators still list Austin as its principal executive office.
What software does Oracle make?
Oracle’s best-known software includes Oracle Database and MySQL for managing data, the Java programming language and platform, NetSuite and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications for finance, HR and supply chains, and Oracle Health electronic health records. It also operates Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, a public cloud that provides computing, storage, GPU clusters and managed database services.
How does Oracle make money?
Oracle makes most of its money from cloud services and software support. In fiscal 2026, which ended in May 2026, cloud revenue was $34.0 billion and software license and support revenue was $24.5 billion, out of $67.4 billion in total. The remainder came from consulting and other services and from hardware such as Exadata systems.
Why is Oracle moving its headquarters to Nashville?
Larry Ellison has said Nashville appeals to Oracle because the city is a center of the U.S. healthcare industry, a market Oracle has targeted since buying Cerner in 2022. The company plans a large riverfront campus there and has been leasing more office space in the city, but it has not said when the headquarters move will be completed.
Sources
- Oracle announces record Q4 and fiscal 2026 results investor.oracle.com
- Oracle promotes Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to CEOs; Safra Catz appointed executive vice chair investor.oracle.com
- Oracle Form 10-Q for the quarter ended August 31, 2026, SEC sec.gov
- Oracle scales up Nashville offices to support rapid growth oracle.com
- Oracle executive leadership oracle.com
- Oracle Corporation, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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