By Natalie Sherman

Copyright bbc

Tech billionaire Larry Ellison and his son, Hollywood producer David, have long walked the halls of the world’s elite.

But this year, their power has taken on a new dimension, as they pursue deals involving names from TikTok to CNN that would give them control over some of the biggest media companies on the planet.

If the Murdoch name is already known the world over, it may not be long before the Ellisons join them.

Paving the way for the family’s ascent is Larry Ellison’s relationship with US President Donald Trump, who has blessed the dealings, praising the elder Ellison earlier this year as “an amazing man and amazing business person”.

“It’s well beyond technology,” he said, describing him as “sort of CEO of everything”.

In some ways, it’s an unlikely path for the Ellisons.

Larry Ellison, 81, made his name mastering the arcane realm of databases and cloud computing, co-founding the software and database company Oracle in 1977.

A giant of the tech world, his fortune, which rests in part on his roughly 40% stake in Oracle, has doubled over the last 12 months, to about $370bn, as the firm takes on a key role building up infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

For a moment this month, he even ranked as the world’s richest person, taking the top spot from Elon Musk.

Ellison’s extracurricular activity to date has tended to skew toward yachting, tennis, anti-aging research and buying an island in Hawaii.

But it’s his relationship with the president that has drawn the most attention recently.

Known as a Republican megadonor, he hosted a fundraiser for Trump in 2020, though he reportedly did not attend the event and federal records show no public contributions to the president.

Oracle became involved with TikTok during Trump’s first term, acting as a host for the app’s user data in the US.

Under a deal brokered by the White House, it is now poised to become an investor with an even greater role, in charge of retraining the algorithm that serves up what we see. (Trump has said the Murdochs, a long established media dynasty, could be involved in the deal as well).

Those ties with the administration have also proved useful for his 42-year-old son, David, as he makes moves to become a major media power player.

His first foray into Hollywood, a 2006 movie about World War I pilots that he financed and co-starred in, was a flop.