Larry Ellison, Oracle's co-founder and executive chairman, has pledged 346 million Oracle shares as collateral for personal loans, representing a substantial portion of his stake in the company. This amount is up from 277 million shares pledged in September 2024, indicating a 30% increase in the number of shares used as collateral. As of mid-September 2026, these 346 million shares were valued at approximately $50 billion based on Oracle's closing price of $144.79 per share on September 14, 2026. This strategy allows Ellison to obtain cash for various business dealings without triggering capital gains taxes that would result from selling the shares.
Ellison's pledged shares account for roughly 12% of Oracle's outstanding stock, while he owns about 40% of the company overall. He utilizes these loans to fund outside ventures and has not sold any Oracle shares over the past year, despite making his fortune available for high-profile corporate deals, such as the Skydance Media acquisition of Paramount Global. This approach is a common method for wealthy individuals to access liquidity while maintaining voting control and benefiting from continued share appreciation.
Oracle's Governance Committee continues to review and approve Ellison's pledging arrangements, concluding that they do not pose a material risk to the company or its stockholders. This assessment is based on factors such as Ellison's financial capacity to repay the loans without selling the shares, the absence of margin accounts, and the fact that the arrangements are not used to hedge his economic exposure to Oracle stock. Oracle has a policy in place since 2018 that bans all other directors, executive officers, and their immediate family members from pledging shares, creating a carve-out specifically for Ellison.
Regulatory filings indicate that the value of Ellison's pledged shares as of September 19 was approximately $107 billion. Assuming a conservative loan-to-value ratio of 20%, this could secure as much as $21.4 billion in debt. Oracle's stock has seen a significant rise over the past year, benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom, which theoretically increases Ellison's borrowing capacity and provides a greater cushion for lenders. Ellison has been a long-time user of such margin loans, with Oracle first disclosing his use of them in 2007 when he pledged 525 million shares.
Despite a year-to-date decline of about 23% in Oracle shares due to concerns over heavy data center spending, analyst sentiment remains broadly positive. The average rating from 28 analysts is a "Strong Buy" with a 12-month target price of $254.32. Ellison recently canceled a plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares worth approximately $7.5 billion, a move that was seen as removing a significant overhang for the stock.
