Larry Ellison’s slide to the No. 6 spot on the world’s richest list is a reminder that even the biggest winners in American business face restless markets and fickle headlines. Forbes reported Tuesday that Ellison fell behind Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg after Oracle shares edged down, shaving billions from his paper fortune in a single session.
The market move wasn’t mysterious — Oracle stock has surrendered a huge chunk of gains since its September peak, and analysts have grown increasingly skeptical about the company’s near-term capital plans. Morgan Stanley’s sharp cut to Oracle’s price target and ongoing investor concerns about spending on AI infrastructure helped put pressure on the share price, a classic Wall Street reaction that punishes long-term industrial investment.
Yet this selloff comes at the exact moment Ellison and Oracle have answered a real national-security challenge, stepping up as one of the lead investors in the new U.S. TikTok entity. The deal, finalized in late January, gives Oracle a meaningful stake and responsibility to host and secure U.S. user data — the kind of concrete, technical solution Washington should have demanded from the start instead of political theater.
Conservatives should celebrate a private-sector solution to a real problem: Oracle will manage U.S. data and participate in retraining the algorithm to reduce foreign influence, measures that protect American users without shuttering a platform used by tens of millions. Instead of reflexive bans and virtue-signaling, this deal shows how American companies can secure our digital frontier while preserving innovation and jobs.
Don’t be fooled by the spin from analysts and short-term traders who treat bold infrastructure plans as a liability. Oracle was even hit with a bondholder lawsuit alleging insufficient disclosure about planned debt for expansion, a legal cloud that feeds market anxiety even as the company invests in national capabilities. This is Wall Street reacting to uncertainty, not a verdict on the patriotic case Ellison and his team made to defend American interests.
Meanwhile, critics on the left who cheered hysterical talk of banning apps have little to say about the practical work of securing data and preserving access for the millions of Americans who rely on the platform. If Democrats and Big Tech truly cared about user privacy and national security, they would applaud companies that shoulder the burden instead of using the issue for political points. The real story here is private enterprise answering a policy vacuum.
Hardworking Americans don’t care who sits at No. 5 or No. 6 on a billionaire leaderboard; they care about safe technology, good jobs, and an America that leads in innovation. Lawmakers should stop grandstanding and let American companies like Oracle build the infrastructure that keeps our data and our children safe. Markets will sort themselves out, but the country can’t afford to ignore solutions while waiting for perfect politics.
