Oracle founder Larry Ellison opts for Hawaii over Texas when software giant moves HQ from Silicon Valley

Mike Snider

| USA TODAY
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has picked up and moved out of California to TexasTesla’s CEO Elon Musk has told The Wall Street Journal he’s moved to Texas because California has ‘taken innovators for granted.’Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, one of the richest people in the world, won’t join the software giant in its upcoming move to Texas.The Silicon Valley-based provider of business software last week said it would relocate its headquarters to Austin, Texas. Oracle would keep an offices in Silicon Valley and let workers choose where to work, possibly from home.But Ellison doesn’t see himself going deep into the heart of Texas. Instead, he will move to Lanai, the island he purchased for $500 million in 2012, two years before he stepped down as Oracle’s CEO.“Following Friday’s announcement … I’ve received a number of inquiries about whether or not I will be moving to Texas,” Ellison wrote in an email to employees, obtained by Recode. “The answer is no. I’ve moved to the state of Hawaii and I’ll be using the power of Zoom to work from the island of Lanai,” he said, and signed off: “Mahalo.”Oracle did not return request for comment from USA TODAY.Ellison sits at No. 7 on Forbes’ Billionaires list – a list topped by Jeff Bezos at $184.3 billion – with a net worth of $83 billion.Oracle isn’t the only Silicon Valley tech company leaning toward Texas. Last week, Tesla founder Elon Musk also announced that he has moved to Austin. Musk had criticized California officials for restrictions designed to limit the coronavirus pandemic.And earlier this year, Tesla picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its second U.S. vehicle assembly plant, where it will build the Cybertruck and the Model Y and Model 3 for distribution to the East Coast.Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

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