If there's one thing artificial intelligence changed, it's Larry Ellison's mind. He also thinks three of his peers in Big Tech are the “smartest engineers” around.
The Oracle boss let his thoughts loose in a wide-ranging, 90-minute keynote at the company's AI World conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, in which he declared AI as a business for the ages.
The 81-year-old Mr Ellison, who swapped an onstage appearance for a live stream instead, said he wasn't so sure about AI several years ago.
“Is AI the most important technology in human history? Uh, dot, dot, dot, we're going to find out soon,” he claimed to have said at that time.
“Well, it's pretty clear … it's very apparent after a few years of [AI], it's the largest, fastest growing business in human history.”
'New world dawning'
Mr Ellison, who cofounded Texas-based Oracle in 1977 and who is at present its executive chairman and chief technology officer, said the AI boom is “a whole new world that is dawning”, underpinned by the benefits the technology has brought – even implying that it will surpass humans in certain aspects.
“It's bigger than the railroads, bigger than the Industrial Revolution,” he said. “These remarkable electronic brains will be able to solve humanity's most difficult and enduring problems.”
In medicine, for example, AI has the potential to hasten the early detection of cancers, and “robots will be much better surgeons than human beings can be”, as AI models become more advanced.
However, he made it clear that while AI will become more superior, he believes humans will remain the main drivers of society.
“People think some people think it's going to replace all human beings and all of our human endeavours. I don't think that's true,” he said.
“It will help us solve problems we couldn't solve on our own. It will make us much better scientists, engineers, teachers, chefs, bricklayers, surgeons, and what have you.”
'Extraordinary people'
Mr Ellison listed Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, Meta Platforms boss Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI leader Sam Altman as the “smartest engineers I know”, crediting them with their vision in their respective fields that have all converged into the present-day AI.
Mr Musk, the world's wealthiest individual – Mr Ellison is second – put electric vehicles on the map, Mr Zuckerberg sowed the seeds for the social media frenzy with Facebook and Mr Altman mainstreamed AI with ChatGPT.
Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg have been heavily investing in AI, a clear sign of the technology's viability and potential, Mr Ellison said.
“They are all really smart guys, extraordinary people … [their efforts] paid off nicely,” he said.
“There'll be people spending money on AI, because almost every tech company these days call themselves an AI company … in terms of its value, this is the highest value technology we have ever seen by far.”
Top-ranked AI models
Mr Ellison listed OpenAI's GPT-5, Google's Gemini 2.5, xAI's Grok 4 and Meta Llama 4 as the “top-ranked” AI models, calling them multimodal that is key for technologies like the cloud.
Demand for AI continues to exceed supply, which means the responsibility falls on AI model service providers to continue their development and improve on capabilities, he said.
“We are participants in creating AI technology, and we're also participants in using that technology to solve problems in different ecosystems and industries,” Mr Ellison said.
He also argued that, for generative AI be more enhanced, private data needs to be included in its training – but it has to be done in a secure manner, just like how companies gathering information are supposed to handle it.
“If you look at [generative AI models], they're all trained on all of the data on the internet,” he said.
“But for these models to reach their peak value, you need to not train them not just on publicly available data – you need to make privately-owned data available to those models as well.”
Controversial figure
Mr Ellison, while having a lower profile compared to other tech billionaires, is also a controversial figure.
Behind the scenes, he is very influential. A big supporter of US President Donald Trump, he is part of a deal spurred by the US government to take an ownership in controversial Chinese app TikTok's US operations.
He is also reportedly pursuing deals to buy into CBS, Paramount and Trump critic CNN, as he makes inroads into the media world, similar to what Amazon founder did with his purchase of The Washington Post. Mr Ellison's son, David, is a producer in Hollywood.
Mr Ellison's past controversies include hiring a private firm to snoop on Microsoft and calling Google “absolutely evil” over the Android operating system.
He last year described a future where everyone, including law enforcement will face regular surveillance where “citizens will be on their best behaviour”, reported Fortune.
Still, he rarely discusses these in public and has let his business – and visionary – side do the talking. He has also made charitable donations and is outspoken on advancing health care.
“We attack the problems, not just as automating a hospital or clinic, but automating the entire ecosystem,” he said.
“Those are the kinds of enormous productivity gains you get when you use these incredible AI tools.”
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
PSA DUBAI WORLD SERIES FINALS LINE-UP
Men’s:
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY)
Ali Farag (EGY)
Simon Rosner (GER)
Tarek Momen (EGY)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
Nick Matthew (ENG)
Women's:
Nour El Sherbini (EGY)
Raneem El Welily (EGY)
Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
Laura Massaro (ENG)
Joelle King (NZE)
Camille Serme (FRA)
Nouran Gohar (EGY)
Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
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Transmission: 8-speed auto
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The biog
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
England-South Africa Test series
1st Test England win by 211 runs at Lord's, London
2nd Test South Africa win by 340 runs at Trent Bridge, Nottingham
3rd Test July 27-31 at The Oval, London
4th Test August 4-8 at Old Trafford, Manchester
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Charlotte Gainsbourg
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MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 1', Kane 8' & 16') West Ham United 3 (Balbuena 82', Sanchez og 85', Lanzini 90' 4)
Man of the match Harry Kane
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Afghanistan fixtures
- v Australia, today
- v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
- v New Zealand, Saturday,
- v South Africa, June 15
- v England, June 18
- v India, June 22
- v Bangladesh, June 24
- v Pakistan, June 29
- v West Indies, July 4
PAST 10 BRITISH GRAND PRIX WINNERS
2016 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2014 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2012 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing)
2011 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
2010 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing)
2009 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2008 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2007 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
Brief scores
Toss India, chose to bat
India 281-7 in 50 ov (Pandya 83, Dhoni 79; Coulter-Nile 3-44)
Australia 137-9 in 21 ov (Maxwell 39, Warner 25; Chahal 3-30)
India won by 26 runs on Duckworth-Lewis Method
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
