Read more about the companies owned by Elon Musk here.
Theranos
Healthcare start-up Theranos was founded in 2003 by Stanford University dropout Elizabeth Holmes. The company hoped to revolutionize the blood-testing industry using its cutting-edge technology, which it claimed could detect serious health conditions—such as cancer and diabetes—with just a few drops of blood.
Holmes, however, was later exposed and convicted as a fraud, deceiving investors, terminally ill patients, and many of her own employees to disguise the technology’s substantial failings. In 2022, she was found guilty on four counts of defrauding investors and sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.
Ellison, who was introduced to Holmes by the prominent Silicon Valley investor Don Lucas, became an early investor in Theranos. He joined the company’s Series C investment round, but the specific details of his investment have never been disclosed.
In the Hulu drama The Dropout, which tracks the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, Ellison is depicted as a close mentor of Holmes, but it is unclear if they maintained such a strong connection in real life.
Read more about the Holmes-inspired series, The Dropout, here.
X
In October 2022, Elon Musk completed a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
The takeover was funded, in part, by a $7.1 billion round of financing, to which Ellison contributed $1 billion. "It’s a real-time news service, and there’s nothing really like it,” Ellison said at the time. "If you agree it’s important for a democracy, then I thought it was worth making an investment in it.”
As Musk’s friend and a major X investor, Ellison benefits from superior customer service. Indeed, the X CEO reportedly helped Ellison when he forgot his password and found himself locked out of the site.
Sensei Ag
Larry Ellison and Dr. David Agus founded Sensei Ag in 2018. The agricultural technology company is committed to improving human nutrition using smart engineering and plant science.
The company is currently developing hydroponic farms on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Ellison bought 98% of the island in 2012 for an estimated $300 million and it is now home to six solar-powered greenhouses, which have the capacity to grow over half a million pounds of produce a year.
Sensei Ag estimates that its innovative processes will use 10% of the water used in traditional farming. Ellison has also partnered with Tesla to power his farms with solar energy.
(Image Credit: Shutterstock/drserg)
