{"text":[[{"start":8.68,"text":"Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has axed plans to sell up to $7.5bn worth of shares in the database giant, in an about-face by the world’s seventh-richest man as his company comes under pressure over its all-in bet on AI."}],[{"start":22.94,"text":"The Austin, Texas-based group said on Saturday that Ellison had elected not to sell any Oracle stock after disclosures the previous day showed he planned to sell as many as 50mn shares by the end of October."}],[{"start":35.08,"text":"“No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,” the company said in a statement."}],[{"start":43.42,"text":"It declined to say why Ellison had changed his mind."}],[{"start":46.82,"text":"At Friday’s closing price of $150, the stake was worth about $7.5bn. The trading plan was set up in late June, according to Oracle’s latest quarterly filing."}],[{"start":57.72,"text":"The disclosure came after Oracle on Thursday reported higher revenue from its data centre business but suffered a slight dip in its share price as investors warned that its margins continued to compress on the back of its all-in AI bet."}],[{"start":70.92,"text":"Shares in the group are down by more than half since it disclosed a $300bn deal with OpenAI in September."}],[{"start":77.2,"text":"A person close to Ellison said that he considered shares in the company to be undervalued. They declined to say whether he intended to purchase more in the coming months."}],[{"start":85.92,"text":"Ellison, 82, is at the centre of a series of big bets aimed at consolidating his family’s grip on US media."}],[{"start":92.82,"text":"The database giant he founded nearly half a century ago is transforming as it seeks to exploit the growing demand from AI companies for data centre capacity."}],[{"start":102.12,"text":"The billionaire in December agreed to personally backstop the $40bn equity financing of his son’s hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery. Paramount Skydance, the production company helmed by Ellison’s son David, has agreed to freeze the proposed merger until as late as next June as a dozen US states seek to block the deal on antitrust grounds."}],[{"start":122.96,"text":"Ellison is also financing a number of high-profile research projects, including the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford and the Ellison Medical Institute in Los Angeles."}],[{"start":131.82,"text":"As of September 2025, the billionaire had pledged 346mn shares of Oracle stock as collateral to secure personal loans, according to the company’s most recent proxy filing. He remains the company’s largest individual shareholder with a 40 per cent stake."}],[{"start":148.8,"text":"Ellison has not appeared on recent company earnings calls after being an ever-present face of Oracle for decades. A person close to the billionaire said he remained “super active” in day-to-day decision-making."}],[{"start":160.28,"text":"Ellison has been central to Oracle’s push into AI data centres, with the group racing to deliver a contract that helped him to briefly eclipse Elon Musk as the world’s richest person. He has a net worth of $204bn, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index."}],[{"start":175.92,"text":"Oracle’s build-out for OpenAI has been hampered by permit and regulatory hurdles. The company has raised substantial debt and issued new shares as it pushes ahead with the projects."}],[{"start":185.72,"text":"It has also undertaken sweeping lay-offs and on Friday disclosed that it had allocated an extra $700mn to finance severance costs in the coming year, after spending $2.1bn in the last fiscal year when it laid off tens of thousands of workers."}],[{"start":202.3,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789262672_9582.mp3"}