拉里·埃里森（短暂）成为世界首富的历程

最近，有一个人的名字似乎无处不在。

Lately, there's one man whose name is seemingly everywhere.

拉里·埃里森现在是世界上最富有的人。

Larry Ellison is now the richest person in the world.

埃里森的净资产增加了超过1000亿美元。拉里·埃里森。他是软件公司甲骨文的81岁创始人。尽管他在硅谷已经闻名数十年，但他并不算是家喻户晓的名字。

Ellison adding over $100,000,000,000 to his net worth. Larry Ellison. He's the 81 year old founder of the software company Oracle. And though he's been known around Silicon Valley for decades, he's not what you'd call a household name.

很多人都忘记了拉里·埃里森，这只是因为他的公司甲骨文直到最近才真正变得重要起来。

A lot of people forgot about Larry Ellison, and that's just because Oracle, his company, hasn't really been very relevant until recently.

我们的同事塞巴斯蒂安·埃雷拉负责科技行业报道。他说，现在甲骨文非常重要，尤其是在公司上周宣布签署了一系列大规模人工智能协议之后。

Our colleague Sebastian Herrera covers the tech industry. And he says that now, Oracle is very relevant, especially after the company announced last week that it had signed a bunch of massive AI deals.

OpenAI已与甲骨文签署了一份价值3000亿美元的云计算能力协议。

OpenAI has signed a $300,000,000,000 deal with Oracle for cloud computing power.

公告发布后，公司股价飙升，一度使埃里森成为世界首富。但这并不是他最近唯一的动作。埃里森最近还通过资助收购娱乐巨头派拉蒙，成为了好莱坞的重要玩家。除此之外，他还涉足了社交媒体领域。甲骨文正在敲定一项协议，成为TikTok美国业务的新所有者之一。

After the announcement, the company's stock spiked, briefly making Ellison the richest man in the world. But that's not the only thing he's been up to. Ellison also recently became a big Hollywood player after he helped finance the purchase of the entertainment conglomerate Paramount. On top of all that, he's also been getting into the social media game. Oracle is finalizing a deal to become one of the new owners of TikTok's US business.

是的。拉里·埃里森在很多方面确实是当下的风云人物。他仍然参与众多事务，涉足我们生活的方方面面，无论是通过媒体、政治还是科技。而且看起来他不会很快停下脚步。

Yeah. Larry Ellison really is the man of the hour in many ways. He's still involved in so much and has his hands in so many different parts of our lives, whether it's through media, through politics, through technology. And it doesn't look like he's gonna stop anytime soon.

欢迎来到《华尔街日报》播客，我们的节目关注金钱、商业和权力。我是瑞安·努森。今天是9月18日星期四。本期节目将探讨：为什么拉里突然无处不在。

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Thursday, September 18. Coming up on the show: Why Larry is suddenly everywhere.

即将播出

Coming

塞巴斯蒂安，你觉得拉里·埃里森最有趣的地方是什么？

Sebastian, what do you find most on interesting about Larry Larry Ellison?

我认为他让我感兴趣的是，尽管他的职业生涯很长，有些人曾认为他过气了，但他似乎一次又一次地卷土重来。他曾被引述说热爱胜利，这真正驱动着他，而目前他确实在很多方面都取得了成功。

I think what interests me with him is that even though he's had this really long career and some people have written him off, he seems to come back time and time again, and he's been quoted as saying that he loves to win, that, it really drives him, and and he's certainly winning in a lot of ways right now.

这是埃里森在2013年接受主持人查理·罗斯采访时的片段。有人告诉我，我请他描述你，他们说：拉里喜欢赢。

Here's Ellison in a 2013 interview with the broadcaster Charlie Rose. Someone said to me that I asked him to describe you, and they said, Larry likes to win.

我想是的。我的意思是，我确实喜欢赢。嗯，应该说我喜欢竞争，喜欢发现自己的极限，喜欢测试自己的极限。

I think I do. I mean, I do like to win. Well, let me say I like to compete, and I like to discover my own limits. I like to test my own limits.

埃里森有着悠久的成功历史，但他的成功之路并非一帆风顺。

Ellison has a long history of winning, but his path to success wasn't always an easy one.

拉里·埃里森的起点比普通科技创业者要卑微得多。他母亲19岁时生下他，实际上将他送人收养。他在芝加哥南区的姨妈和姨夫家长大，从未见过亲生父亲。他曾说过，自己拥有成功所需的一切不利条件。

So Larry Ellison has much more humble beginnings than the average tech entrepreneur. His mother was 19 years old when she birthed him, and she actually gave him up for adoption. And he was raised by his aunt and uncle on the South Side Of Chicago, and he never knew his biological father. He's been quoted as saying that he had all the disadvantages necessary for success.

我拥有成功所需的一切不利条件。你知道，在芝加哥南区长大的人，可能都想去更好的地方。

I had all the disadvantages necessary for success. You know, when you're raised on the South Side Of Chicago, you probably wanna move someplace nicer.

他是一个视自己为克服困境的人。

He's somebody who sees himself as, overcoming hardship.

是的。他视自己为弱势者。

Yeah. He sees himself as an underdog.

我认为，如果它没有击垮你，就会让你更强大。所以我一直很有野心，也一直充满好奇心。

I think if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. So I've always been very ambitious. I've always been very curious.

两次大学辍学后，埃里森于1966年搬到了加利福尼亚州伯克利。在那里，他开始接触计算机编程。不久后，他找到了一份为一个名为Oracle的数据库项目工作的职位。

After dropping out of college twice, Ellison moved to Berkeley, California in 1966. There, he started getting into computer programming. And soon, he landed a job working on a database project for project called Oracle.

到了1977年他创建Oracle时，他对这个名字非常满意，于是沿用了他旧项目的名称。

By the time 1977 came around and he created Oracle, he liked that name enough from his old project to use it.

埃里森的甲骨文公司有点无聊。他们开发其他公司用来组织数据的软件。我们年长一些的听众可能还记得那些曾经放在办公室里存储数据的大型服务器机架。这些机器上的软件就是甲骨文的核心业务。这项技术在八九十年代非常火爆。

Ellison's Oracle was kind of a boring company. They built the software that other companies used to organize their data. Some of our older listeners may remember those big server racks that used to live inside offices to store data. The software on those machines was Oracle's bread and butter. This technology was huge in the eighties and nineties.

当甲骨文在1986年上市时，业务正在蓬勃发展。

And when Oracle went public in 1986, business was booming.

因此到了九十年代初，公司发展得足够好，埃里森登上了福布斯亿万富豪榜。

And so by the early nineties, the company was doing well enough that Ellison joined the Forbes list of billionaires.

他的公司可能有点无聊，但埃里森本人却绝非如此。在全球亿万富豪精英中，他一直被认为是个相当有个性的人物。例如，他现在几乎拥有夏威夷拉奈岛的全部土地，在那里建立了一个整体健康中心。他离过四次婚，还拥有一支帆船队，两次赢得美洲杯帆船赛——如果你喜欢帆船运动，就知道这是件大事。他甚至在其中一场获胜比赛中担任船员。

His company might be a little boring, but Ellison is anything but. Among the world's billionaire elite, he's been seen as quite the character. For instance, he now owns almost all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where he set up a holistic wellness center. He's been divorced four times, and he's got a sailing team that won the America's Cup tournament twice, which if you're into sailing is a very big deal. He was even a crew member in one of the winning races.

我特别自豪能在长久缺席后，再次将美洲杯带回美利坚合众国。

And I'm especially proud to bring the America's Cup once again after a long absence back to The United States Of America.

而且，他还热爱其他运动。众所周知，他在他的超级游艇上安装了一个篮球框，实际上还有一艘小船跟着超级游艇，专门在投篮不中时去捡回篮球。

But also, he loves other sports. So he famously, on his mega yacht, has a basketball hoop installed, and he actually has a boat that chases the mega yacht that retrieves balls when they, you know, go and miss from from the hoop.

嗯，我的意思是，虽然对埃里森先生表示应有的尊重，但如果他的投篮总是弹出去掉进海里，那他肯定算不上多出色的篮球运动员。但是，

Well, I mean, with all due respect to mister Ellison, he must not be that good of a basketball player if his shots are bouncing off and, going into the ocean. But,

没错。我觉得他并没有自称是斯蒂芬·库里，但他拥有那个球场这件事本身就相当了不起。

Right. I don't think he's, claims to be Stuff Curry, but the fact that he has that is is pretty amazing.

据报道，他在海上还差点死了两次。一次是玩人体冲浪时，另一次是在比赛期间风暴袭击了他的游艇。他还是个飞行员。据《卫报》报道，他拥有两架战斗机风格的喷气机，并曾与儿子在太平洋上空进行模拟狗斗。

He's also reportedly almost died twice while out on the water. Once while body surfing and another time when a storm hit his yacht during a race. And he's a pilot. According to The Guardian newspaper, he has owned two fighter style jets and used to square off against his son in mock dogfights over the Pacific Ocean.

他所有这些经历让他成为一个非常有趣的人。我的意思是，这是一种怎样的生活啊，为了娱乐，能开着战斗机与儿子进行模拟空战玩耍。嗯哼。

He has all these stories that just make him a really interesting person. I mean, what a life to, for fun, be able to go on a fighter jet and just play around in a mock dog fight with your son. So Mhmm.

这是我作为父亲的一个目标。但在21世纪初，当埃里森似乎玩得很开心的时候，甲骨文却陷入了停滞。该公司一直专注于其数据库软件，而其竞争对手如亚马逊和微软正在进军云计算领域。

That's a goal for me as a dad. But throughout the early aughts, while Ellison was seemingly having a lot of fun, Oracle was growing stagnant. The company stayed focused on its database software while its competitors like Amazon and Microsoft were getting into the cloud.

甲骨文在很长一段时间里真的依赖数据库技术，直到很晚才转向云计算。而且拉里·埃里森早期对云计算持怀疑态度。

Oracle really relied on the database technology for a long time and didn't really turn into the cloud computing until late in the game. And Larry Ellison was sort of down about the cloud early on.

在2008年2月的一个甲骨文活动上，埃里森将云计算比作转瞬即逝的时尚潮流。他说，引用原话：‘也许我是个白痴，但我完全不明白人们在谈论什么。这是什么？完全是胡言乱语。太疯狂了。’

At an Oracle event in 02/2008, Ellison compared cloud computing to a fleeting fashion trend. He said, quote, maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane.

这种愚蠢行为什么时候才能停止？甲骨文当时错失了良机。结果就是，这家公司在硅谷科技圈开始声誉受损。

When is this idiocy gonna stop? Oracle was missing the boat. And as a result, the company was starting to get a bad reputation around the Silicon Valley tech community.

说实话，在整个二月份，很少有人提及甲骨文，除了把它看作一家笨重的老牌科技公司，人们基本上已经把它排除在外了，觉得它的辉煌时期已经过去。他们认为甲骨文是八九十年代风靡一时的公司，但真正的高光时刻已经结束，不再是主流科技玩家，也没有给投资者带来真正的回报。我认为当时很多人都对甲骨文的下一步发展感到焦虑。

Oracle, you know, frankly, throughout the February, very few people were mentioning Oracle aside from just this clunky technology company that had been around for a while that people sort of wrote off as, you know, they've had their moment in the sun. They viewed Oracle as this has been a company that was popular in the eighties and nineties, but that really had had its moment and was not a a main technology player, not really paying off for investors. And I think there was a lot of angst of what Oracle's next beat would be.

甲骨文的未来悬而未决。接下来就是它如何扭转局面的故事。最终，拉里·埃里森意识到云计算是未来，于是加入了这一浪潮。但甲骨文远远落后于竞争对手和市场占有率。不过从长远来看，这种延迟反而成了一种优势。

Oracle's future was up in the air. How it turned around is next. Eventually, Larry Ellison realized that cloud computing was the future and jumped on the bandwagon. But Oracle was way behind their competition and market share. But that delay turned out to be an advantage in the long run.

因为等到甲骨文在2010年代中期开始大力投资云计算时，它能更清楚地看到技术的发展方向。

Because by the time Oracle started investing heavily in the cloud in the mid twenty tens, it could see more clearly where the technology was headed.

等到人工智能兴起，AI训练成为热点时，他们已经将很多云计算服务聚焦于这次AI热潮。所以当AI热潮来临时，他们处于非常有利的位置来从中获利。从某种程度上说，他们在第一波云计算浪潮中的迟缓最终得到了回报，因为当他们重新聚焦时，他们聚焦在了正确的事情上。

By the time AI came around and AI training came around, they had focused a lot of their cloud computing offerings for this AI boom. So by the time the AI boom came, they were in a really great position to capitalize on it. And so in some ways, their slowness with getting on the cloud computing wave, the first iteration of it ended up paying off because when they refocused, they refocused to the right thing.

这使得甲骨文的数据中心成为AI公司的完美选择，包括OpenAI。而且，甲骨文并不自己构建AI模型。所以与亚马逊和微软不同，它被视为AI云计算领域中立可信的合作伙伴。这一点在上周二真正得到了回报。

That made Oracle's data centers the perfect option for AI companies, including OpenAI. Also, isn't building its own AI model. So unlike Amazon and Microsoft, it's been seen as a neutral trusted partner for AI cloud computing. And that really paid off last Tuesday.

上周，我坐在电脑前，听到了甲骨文的财报电话会议。

Last week, I was sitting at my computer, and I was hearing the earnings call for Oracle.

谢谢肯，大家下午好。

Thanks, Ken, and good afternoon, everyone.

在那一天到来之前，没有人预料到会看到和听到甲骨文所披露的内容。

And going into that day, nobody expected to see and hear what Oracle revealed.

我们今年开局非常出色，因为甲骨文已成为AI工作负载的首选平台。我们已与AI领域的顶尖企业签署了重要的云合同，包括OpenAI、xAI和Meta。

We had an amazing start to the year because Oracle Oracle has become the go to place for AI workloads. We have signed significant cloud contracts with the who's who of AI, including OpenAI, xAI, Meta.

最大的新闻？该公司已与一些关键AI参与者签署了巨额合同，包括与OpenAI达成的3000亿美元交易，这是有史以来最大的云计算合同之一。

The biggest news? The company had signed huge contracts with some key AI players, including that $300,000,000,000 deal with OpenAI, which is one of the largest cloud computing contracts ever signed.

这使他们的股价飙升。自1992年以来，他们的股票从未经历过这样的日子。当天参加甲骨文财报电话会议的分析师和投资者都惊呆了。

And that set their stock skyrocketing. Their stock hadn't seen a day like that since 1992. Analysts and investors that were on Oracle's earnings call that day, they were just dumbfounded.

听着，就连我也对未来的前景感到有些震撼。我认为我们都以一种非常非常好的方式感到震惊。

Listen, even I'm sort of blown away by what this looks like going forward. I think we're all kind of in shock in a very, very good way.

他们不敢相信这份财报如此出色，这确实是甲骨文的里程碑之日。

They couldn't believe how good this report had been, and it really was marker day for Oracle.

甲骨文正式回归了。该公司股价今年上涨超过100%。在上周消息公布后股价进一步上涨，埃里森的财富增加了890亿美元。埃里森拥有甲骨文约40%的股份。他曾一度成为世界首富，不过他的朋友埃隆·马斯克很快重新夺回了这一头衔。

Oracle was officially back. The company's stock is up more than a 100% this year. And after the stock went up even more following last week's news, Ellison's wealth rose by $89,000,000,000. Ellison owns roughly 40% of Oracle stock. And for a day, he was the world's richest person, though his friend Elon Musk quickly reclaimed the title.

拉里·埃里森的一大特点是，他与科技界的几乎所有人都有关系。因此，在甲骨文更新技术的同时，他们在幕后也进行了政治运作。你可以看到他们通过这两件事扭转了局面。

One of the big things with Larry Ellison is that he has relationships with just about everybody in the tech world. And so as Oracle has updated their technology, behind the scenes, they've also played politics. And you've seen them sort of turn everything around through those two things.

埃里森建立关系的关键人物之一是美国总统唐纳德·特朗普。特朗普也成了埃里森的粉丝，尤其是在有关TikTok中国所有权问题的辩论上。

One of the key people that Ellison has created a relationship with is president Donald Trump. And Trump has become a fan of Ellison too, especially when it comes to the debate over TikTok's Chinese ownership.

一月份，拉里·埃里森在白宫，有人在这场新闻发布会上问特朗普总统是否希望埃隆·马斯克收购TikTok。他说，是的。但是，如果拉里·埃里森也能收购，那就太好了。

In January, Larry Ellison was at the White House, and somebody asked president Trump at this press conference if he wanted Elon Musk to buy TikTok. And he said, yeah. But, also, it would be great if Larry Ellison bought it as well.

您对埃隆收购TikTok持开放态度吗？

Are you open to Elon buying TikTok?

如果他愿意收购，我会支持的。我也希望拉里能收购。

I would be if he wanted to buy it. I'd like Larry to buy it too.

所以特朗普表现出希望拉里·埃里森收购TikTok的意愿。即使唐纳德·特朗普试图将TikTok出售给美国投资者，他似乎认为拉里·埃里森是能够真正站出来帮助他完成此事的人。而根据各方面的情况，这正是正在发生的事情。

So Trump has shown a desire for Larry Ellison to purchase TikTok. And even as Donald Trump has sought to sell TikTok to US investors, he seems Larry Ellison as someone who can really step up and help him with that. And that by all counts, is what's happening.

本周，《华尔街日报》报道称，由甲骨文公司牵头的美国财团已达成协议框架，将拥有美国版TikTok新公司80%的股份。一位白宫高级官员表示，关于TikTok框架的任何细节都是纯粹猜测，除非由本届政府正式公布。埃里森在科技界之外也有动作。今年早些时候，他动用财富帮助儿子大卫完成了对派拉蒙全球的收购。没错，就是那个曾与他用战斗机模拟狗斗的儿子。

And this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that a framework of a deal has been reached for an American consortium led by Oracle to own 80% of a new US version of TikTok. A senior White House official said, Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration. Allison has also been making moves outside the tech world. Earlier this year, he used his wealth to help finance his son David's takeover of Paramount Global. And yes, this is the son he used to have mock dogfights with in their fighter jets.

除了电影制片厂，派拉蒙还拥有尼克儿童频道和CBS等电视网络。

In addition to a movie studio, Paramount also owns networks like Nickelodeon and CBS.

当他的儿子大卫·埃里森成为派拉蒙天舞影业的负责人时，特朗普对此非常高兴。他称大卫·埃里森是个了不起的人。

When his son David Ellison became the head of Paramount Skydance, Trump was very happy about it. He called David Ellison a great man.

CBS刚刚卖给了我非常熟悉的一个了不起的人。实际上是个非常了不起的人。

CBS was just sold to a great person that I know very well. Great a great man, actually.

收购公司后，大卫·埃里森迅速任命了一位特朗普的盟友担任CBS的新监察专员。

After acquiring the company, David Ellison was quick to install a Trump ally as CBS's new ombudsman.

所以特朗普表现出非常高兴，因为拉里·埃里森和他的儿子大卫如此深入地参与媒体行业以及这个潜在的TikTok交易。

So Trump has shown that he's very happy that Larry Ellison and his son David are as involved in media and in this potential TikTok deal as they have been.

随后这对父子档表明他们尚未止步。派拉蒙天舞影业现在正准备提交竞标，收购另一家大型媒体集团，再次动用父亲的钱。

Then the father son duo showed that they weren't done yet. Paramount Skydance is now preparing to submit a bid to buy another huge media conglomerate, again with dad's money.

埃里森家族正在资助对华纳兄弟探索频道的潜在收购，这将是娱乐行业最大的交易之一。它将改变娱乐产业格局。如果他们能够成功完成这笔交易，他们将拥有好莱坞的很大一部分。

The Ellison family is bankrolling a potential purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery, which would be one of the biggest deals in the entertainment industry. It would change the entertainment industry. And if they're able to pull that deal off, they will own a huge part of Hollywood.

派拉蒙全球与华纳兄弟探索频道的合并将整合两家大型电影制片厂——派拉蒙和华纳兄弟，两个热门流媒体服务——HBO和派拉蒙+，两大新闻机构——CBS和CNN，以及数十个电视网络。

A merger between Paramount Global and Warner Brothers Discovery would bring together two large movie studios, Paramount and Warner Brothers, two popular streaming services, HBO and Paramount Plus, two huge news outlets, CBS and CNN, and dozens of television networks.

我们未来可能会继续大量讨论拉里·埃里森。

We're probably going to continue to talk plenty about Larry Ellison going forward.

但埃里森已经81岁了。他不会永远都在，尽管他正在努力尝试。

But Ellison is again 81 years old. He's not going to be around forever, although he's trying.

拉里·埃里森已向健康研究和长寿理念投入了数亿美元。他曾表示死亡对他来说并不合理。所以这是一个明确表示没有计划安享晚年的人。他想要继续存在，想要保持影响力。

Larry Ellison has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into health research and into the idea of living as long as you can. He's talked about death as something that doesn't really make sense to him. So this is someone who has shown that he has no plans to just ride into the sunset. He wants to stick around. He wants to be relevant.

他想要尽可能长时间地参与这场游戏。而他确实正在这样做。

He wants to be a part of this game as long as he can. And he's certainly doing that.

以上就是今天9月18日星期四的全部内容。《华尔街日报》播客是Spotify与《华尔街日报》联合制作。本期节目额外报道由Berber Jin、Jessica Tunkel、Lauren Thomas、Tom Doton和Joe Flint完成。感谢收听，明天见。

That's all for today, Thursday, September 18. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Berber Jin, Jessica Tunkel, Lauren Thomas, Tom Doton, and Joe Flint. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.