David Ellison’s Fortune & Career: How the Oracle Heir Built Skydance Into a Hollywood Empire
What happens when Silicon Valley money meets Hollywood ambition? David Ellison’s fortune and career provide the perfect case study. As the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, he inherited a vast fortune. But instead of lounging on the beach, he dove headfirst into filmmaking. In 2010, he founded Skydance Media in Santa Monica and set out to produce big-budget blockbusters.
Under his leadership, Skydance has backed hits like Top Gun: Maverick (2022). In 2025, David engineered an $8 billion deal to acquire Paramount Global, merging Skydance with the storied studio. Today, as CEO of the new Paramount Skydance empire, the 42-year-old is shaping Hollywood’s next chapter. Let’s explore David Ellison’s background, career milestones, blockbuster projects, and net worth. Also, how does he compare to his sister, fellow producer Megan Ellison?
David Ellison’s Fortune: Early Life and Family Background
David Ellison was born on January 9, 1983, in Santa Clara County, California. He’s the only son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his third wife, Barbara Boothe Ellison. His younger sister, Megan Ellison, arrived just a few months later. After his parents’ divorce, David and Megan were raised by their mother on a horse farm in Woodside. Meanwhile, Larry Ellison built his tech empire in Silicon Valley.
Even as a child, David showed a passion for two things: flying and films. He took aerobatic flying lessons, soaring around the Bay Area in his teens, and also binge-watched movie franchises. His mother nurtured his love of cinema by taking the kids to every opening. She also kept a 2,000-title VHS collection at home.
Though David grew up aware of his extreme wealth, his father intentionally taught him financial responsibility. Larry set up large trusts for him and Megan using Oracle and later NetSuite stock. David’s trust began with just 90,000 Oracle shares, but after splits, this stake swelled to 29.2 million shares. This was worth roughly $1 billion by 2013. Two years later, Forbes reported the siblings owned about 2.8% of Oracle’s stock, approximately $4.8 billion.
Cultivating a Business Mind
In exchange for chores as a kid, David got allowances to fund his love for flight and film. However, unlike other spoiled trust-fund kids, he leveraged this raw capital. For example, after high school, he enrolled at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He then dropped out in 2005 to produce his first movie, the WWI drama Flyboys. That first movie venture taught him the ropes of production.
By age 25, David and Megan had each received huge cash gifts from their father, Larry. It’s reportedly that they each got $200 million on their birthdays. This investment solidified the siblings’ commitment to their entertainment careers.
Larry Ellison’s early investments in David allowed him to develop a business mind. He was flying planes, studying stories, and learning production hands-on. All that private privilege set the stage for him to strike out on his own and launch Skydance Media.
Launch of Skydance Media
Armed with capital and film-industry enthusiasm, Ellison launched Skydance Media in 2010. His initial mission was to create elevated, event-level entertainment that merged technology and spectacle for global audiences.
However, Skydance immediately pursued deals with major studios, notably co-financing a slate of films with Paramount Pictures. In fact, as early as 2013, Skydance inked a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with Paramount.
The studio’s early years were a mix of ambition and a few hiccups, as the LA Times put it. Still, David quickly leveraged his resources. His father’s investment firm and other backers poured hundreds of millions into the studio. In 2022, Skydance secured $400 million in new funding, led by investors like KKR, Tencent, RedBird, and family.
This cash fueled more films and studio expansions. Today, Skydance employs over 1,300 people and has divisions in film, TV, animation, games, and sports. Along the way, Ellison added top Hollywood talent. For example, he hired former Pixar chief John Lasseter to head the animation branch.
Major Successes in Film and TV
Under David’s leadership, Skydance has backed a string of blockbusters and acclaimed shows. Key successes include:
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
This sequel to Top Gun became the highest-grossing film of 2022. It shattered box-office records and earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Ellison served as a producer, and the film’s phenomenal success cemented Skydance’s Hollywood clout.
Mission: Impossible series
Skydance co-produced multiple installments of Paramount’s long-running action franchise. Notably, Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018) and Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) were projects under his watch. These high-octane thrillers, starring Tom Cruise, were both box-office hits and critics’ darlings.
Star Trek sequels
Ellison revived the Star Trek cinematic universe with Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). Both of these films, which continued the legacy of the TV classic on the big screen, were financed by Skydance. There are reports that Skydance is building future Trek projects after acquiring Paramount.
Other hit films
Skydance’s slate also includes Netflix and original films like The Old Guard (2020) and The Tomorrow War (2021). But that’s not all. There are also stand-outs such as Annihilation (2018), Jack Reacher (2012), and 6 Underground (2019). Each of these has expanded Skydance’s profile, whether on streaming platforms or in theaters. For example, The Old Guard, an action-fantasy starring Charlize Theron, became a streaming hit, while Annihilation earned critical praise.
Animation
Skydance Animation launched in 2017, producing the Netflix film Spellbound (2024) and the Apple TV+ series WondLa (2024). These illustrate David’s push into family and animated storytelling. The studio’s deal with Netflix also includes upcoming films like Pookoo and Ray Gunn.
Skydance Television
Skydance Television has also been prolific on the small screen. Under Ellison, the TV division has produced several notable series for streaming and broadcast. Skydance TV’s Emmy-nominated series include Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Apple TV+’s Foundation, and Amazon’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. The studio has also produced the Prime series Reacher and FUBAR.
Each of these shows has attracted big audiences and publicity, proving Skydance could succeed beyond the multiplex. For example, Jack Ryan and Reacher helped Amazon TV hit tens of millions of viewers. Grace and Frankie, on the other hand, ran 94 episodes across 7 seasons on Netflix.
David Ellison’s Fortune: Net Worth Breakdown
With all these accomplishments, what is David Ellison’s personal fortune? Estimates vary, but Celebrity Net Worth lists his net worth at about $500 million as of 2025. This reflects his share of Skydance, producing fees, and inherited investments.
Much of David’s wealth is, of course, tied to Skydance and the Ellison family trusts. For example, the 2022 funding round valued it at over $4 billion. As the founder, with significant equity and family backing, he likely owns a large slice of that fortune. He has also served as executive producer on dozens of high-grossing films, earning big paychecks and backend profits.
However, the single largest asset behind his wealth remains the Oracle family fortune. Thanks to his father’s trusts, David’s effective personal balance sheet once included billions in stock. At one point, the trust he shared with Megan held 2.8% of Oracle.
In practical terms, the Ellison children owned tens of millions of Oracle shares through a trust, giving them generational wealth. Larry Ellison’s own net worth grew from $1.6B when David was 10 to $131B by 2024. And so far, Larry Ellison’s net worth is about $370B.
David Ellison’s Sister Megan
David’s younger sister, Megan Ellison, born in 1986, is also a Hollywood producer. However, their careers have taken strikingly different paths. Both had the same Oracle-origin wealth, but Megan founded Annapurna Pictures in 2011 to pursue independent, auteur-driven films. In contrast to David’s franchise-heavy slate, Megan’s strategy was about prestige and daring projects. With a $200 million gift from Larry at age 25, she financed critically acclaimed movies that big studios often avoided.
Annapurna Studio’s credits include:
- Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty
- Spike Jonze’s Her
- Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master
- David O. Russell’s American Hustle.
Most of these films earned Academy Award nominations. For example, Zero Dark Thirty grossed $132M against a $40M budget, thanks to her backing.
How Does David Ellison’s Fortune Compare to Megan’s?
In 2016, Business Insider noted that Megan funded potentially great films that major studios won’t touch. That approach won artistic publicity, but also financial risk. In contrast, David’s Skydance loaded up on tentpoles and broad-appeal content.
David focused on surefire hits like action thrillers and famous IP, rather than the niche indie market. The outcome is that Megan’s Annapurna, once heralded as a savior of auteur cinema, has actually been more volatile financially. It nearly went bankrupt in 2017 before restructuring, whereas Skydance has grown steadily with blockbuster profits.
In terms of net worth, both siblings remain extremely wealthy thanks to family trusts. Public estimates put Megan at about $400 million and David at around $500 million. The difference reflects their business outcomes. David’s mainstream hits have generally been more lucrative than Megan’s risky bets.
Still, both siblings share the Ellison legacy. As Megan’s work shows, Ellison’s money has supported everything from Oscar-caliber dramas to big-budget spectacles. Each has made a mark, Megan on critical filmmaking and David on commercial entertainment. However, together they represent a remarkably Hollywood-savvy branch of the Ellison family.
Future Outlook in Entertainment
Looking ahead, David Ellison shows no signs of slowing down. In 2025, he took full control of Paramount Skydance Corporation, the merged entity formed when Skydance bought Paramount Global. The FCC approved the deal in July 2025, and it closed on August 7, 2025. As Chairman/CEO of the new studio, he immediately outlined an aggressive vision.
At a Paramount lot press event in August 2025, he and his team emphasized big investment in franchises and technology. He emphasized reaching broad audiences and moving away from politics, aiming to restore Paramount’s studio luster.
However, even before the merger closed, Ellison’s Skydance had made bold content moves that preview this future. In summer 2025, the studio won a bidding war to distribute a new crime film starring Timothée Chalamet, signaling it is courting top talent. Additionally, in September 2025, Paramount Skydance struck a seven-year, $7.7 billion exclusive U.S. streaming and broadcast agreement with the UFC.
He also paid $1.5 billion for global streaming rights to the South Park library. These moves, which include video game-like rights and sports content, underscore his strategy of paying a premium for a variety of popular IP.
More Acquisitions?
With Paramount under his thumb, Ellison’s ambitions have grown. Media reports now say he is preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Combining Paramount’s library with Warner’s HBO, Warner Bros. films, and CNN would create a true media colossus, as Bloomberg analysts noted.
Whether or not a WBD deal happens, these talks show Ellison is aiming to reshape the industry. Controversially, he tapped a conservative media executive as CBS News ombudsman and entertained buying Bari Weiss’s news startup. Some commentators view Ellison’s moves as an attempt to break out of legacy media’s groupthink and perhaps appease regulatory pressures.
In film development, Skydance has announced sequels and new franchises to watch. For instance, Top Gun 3 is a stated priority, as is a new Star Trek movie. On the animation side, the studio’s Netflix partnership will produce more films, after Spellbound, projects like Pookoo and Ray Gunn. Plus, there are promising original scripts and joint ventures in the pipeline. As the CEO, Ellison sees Skydance as much more than just a producer of existing franchises.
Final Take
David Ellison’s fortune and career future outlook are defined by expansion and empire-building. He now controls Paramount’s vast TV, film, and streaming apparatus. Additionally, he’s using that scale to pursue ambitious content deals and acquisitions. As one Reuters report put it, just weeks after the Paramount merger closed, “David Ellison’s empire-building kicked into gear.” He’s moving “at breakneck speed to transform the studio into something far more ambitious.
