Former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is no stranger to the real estate market — he’s been called “the nation’s most avid trophy-home buyer” and has all but taken over entire neighborhoods in Malibu and the Lake Tahoe area.
When asked by CNBC in 2012 why he would buy more homes than he could possibly live in, Ellison referenced his love of art.
“I’m going to start these art museums that are basically converted homes, and I have one for modern art, and I have one for 19th century European art, and one for French impressionism,” Ellison said to CNBC. “I’ve got Japanese. I own a home in Kyoto, Japan actually on the temple grounds in Nanzenji that is going to become a Japanese art museum. So, a lot of them are museums.”
Though his 2012 purchase of the Hawaiian island of Lanai has been his largest overall investment by far, he’s made a number of blockbuster purchases over the last two decades.
In 1988, Ellison paid $3.9 million for a William Wurster home in San Francisco’s swanky Pacific Heights neighborhood, a popular area that’s now home to other tech moguls like Mark Pincus, Jony Ive, and Trevor Traina. Several news outlets reported Ellison planned to buy the home next door for $40 million, but the sale never happened.
His home in Woodside, Calif., modeled after a 16th-century Japanese emperor’s palace, is worth an estimated $70 million. The 23-acre estate took nine years to design and build, and it was completed in 2004.
He also owns a historic garden villa in Kyoto, Japan, which was reportedly listed for $86 million, though the price he paid is unknown.
Ellison owns as many as two dozen properties in Malibu, Calif., including 10 on billionaire-packed Carbon Beach. In 2012 he bought the home belonging to former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, and in 2013 he paid $18 million for producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s house.
One of his Malibu homes, a 2,800-square-foot oceanfront cottage, is available to rent for $65,000 a month this summer.
In 2004, he paid $17.6 million for the parcel that’s now home to Nobu Malibu, an ultra-trendy Japanese restaurant popular among Hollywood A-listers. In 2013 he opened a Mediterranean restaurant called Nikita just next door.
Rumor has it that Ellison and Nobu Matsuhisa, the mastermind behind the Nobu sushi chain, have plans to convert the historic Casa Malibu Inn into a high-end Japanese concept hotel. Ellison purchased the property for $20 million in 2007.
He bought the Malibu Racquet Club for $6.9 million in 2007. The facilities have been vastly improved since the purchase, and tennis pros Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams have been spotted here.
This 2.5-acre home in Snug Harbor, just one of three parcels Ellison owns in Lake Tahoe, sold for $20.35 million in July 2014. He’s reportedly working on building another home that’s three times the size of this one, with 18,000 square feet of living space in addition to an island, waterfalls, and a tennis court.
In 2010, he paid $10.5 million for the Beechwood Villa in Newport, R.I. He’s planning to turn the historic home, which once belonged to the Astor family, into a museum to house his extensive 19th-century art collection.
Ellison bought Porcupine Creek from Yellowstone Club founders Tim and Edra Blixseth for $42.9 million in 2011. The private golf club, which is located in Rancho Mirage, Calif., includes a main house with a whopping 16 bedrooms, in addition to several separate guest houses.
Ellison raised some eyebrows when in 2012 he paid a reported $500 million to buy 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Since then, he’s bought two airlines, refurbished the island’s hotels, and started investing in clean energy sources. He plans to use the island as an experiment for environmentally sound practices.
In February 2014, Ellison reportedly purchased 21 more residential properties near the Four Seasons Resorts Lanai at Manele Bay, spending a little more than $41 million.
