Larry Ellison's Bet on AI Over Software
Eric Guyer
1 min read
March 2026
Bob Evans, what impresses me is that, at 82, #LarryEllison had the #neuroplasticity to act decisively. His interests are crystal clear based on the checks he's been writing.
Larry has plowed tens of $Billions into #AI infrastructure and entertainment/news media via Paramount based on political adjacency. #Cerner was (and will be) his last foray into his lifelong core competency of dominating database and apps. OpenAI's #ChatGPT was released a mere 5 months later and presumably struck him as the end of profitable IP-centric software. Oracle's legacy support and maintenance profit will begin winding down over the coming 5 to 10 years.
In other words, I think Larry simply doesn't care about software and traditional cloud computing as much as he used to, and wisely so. I'm surprised he attended the earnings call at all. The only thing that matters for the next few years (months?) is Larry's bet that OpenAI wins the AI arms race.