Larry Ellison Borrowed Against His Tesla and SpaceX Stock to Fund His Son’s Warner Bros. Deal
Oracle's Larry Ellison quietly pledged shares in two of the world's most closely watched companies as collateral for loans tied to a media empire his son now controls at a steep loss. The full picture of what that means for…
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL | ORCL Price Prediction), put up shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) as collateral this year. He used them to borrow more from banks and help pay for his son David Ellison’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The Wall Street Journal reported the pledges on October 20, 2026, citing filings.
The Tesla and SpaceX pledges are reported, and the companies have not confirmed them. No share counts, loan amounts, or lender names have been made public.
Oracle closed at $131.14 on October 20, up 1.16% for the session. Tesla rose 1.54% to $373.71 after Elon Musk commented on a possible SpaceX merger. SpaceX closed at $147.79 and then reached $159.70 after hours on its third-quarter results. Those moves follow earnings and merger news. Nothing in them points to the collateral report.
Why a Falling Stock Can Force a Borrower to Sell
In a stock-backed loan, a bank lends cash against shares. If the shares fall far enough, the borrower has to post more collateral or sell stock.
Billionaires borrow because selling triggers capital gains tax and cuts their voting control. The collateral’s value now moves with three volatile stocks, adding risk. SpaceX just reported, and Tesla reports third-quarter results after the close on October 21.
Oracle’s Proxy Shows a Growing Pledge
As of the September 21 record date, Ellison beneficially owned 1,158,375,174 Oracle shares, or 38.2% of the class. He has pledged 413,000,000 of them, up from 346 million a year earlier.
The 67 million added shares were worth about $9.2 billion at the September 25 close of $137.10. That leaves about 36% of his holdings pledged.
The proxy says “the pledged shares secure personal term loans only used to fund outside personal business ventures.” It does not name Warner Bros.; that link comes from the press report. The board thinks he “has the financial capacity to repay his personal term loans without resorting to the pledged shares.”
What the Borrowed Money Bought at Skydance
The deal closed on October 6, 2026. Warner Bros. Discovery holders received $31.01666668 per share in cash, and $47 billion of new Skydance (NYSE:SKYD) Class B stock was sold at $12.00.
Bloomberg estimated that the Ellisons invested about $17 billion for an estimated 1.4 billion shares. Bloomberg also reported $24 billion committed from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and $52 billion in added debt.
Skydance closed at $7.10, roughly 41% below that issue price, and is down 57.44% over one year. At current prices, the collateral is backing a stake worth less than what the Ellisons paid for it. Skydance reports results on November 9, 2026.
Why Oracle’s Contract Backlog Matters More Than the Pledge Headlines
Several risks weigh on Oracle. The same Bloomberg data shows Ellison’s fortune almost $200 billion lower over the past year and Oracle’s long-term debt at more than $160 billion. The stock is down 52.06% over one year.
The Tesla and SpaceX pledges can’t be sized. They also sit inside companies valued at $1.48 trillion and $2.01 trillion, so the forced-selling risk is focused at Oracle.
Even so, the business fundamentals look firmer than the pledge headlines suggest. Remaining performance obligations, or committed revenue not yet recognized, reached $664 billion. Management guided fiscal 2027 revenue to at least $90B. Ellison also said in September that he has no other plans to sell Oracle stock.
A Form 4 filing showing Ellison selling Oracle shares would break that view. So would Oracle missing its fiscal second-quarter non-GAAP EPS guidance of $1.85 to $1.93.
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Omor Ibne Ehsan is a writer at 24/7 Wall St. He is a self-taught investor with a focus on growth, cyclical, and dividend equities that have strong fundamentals, value, and long-term potential. He also has an interest in high-risk, high-reward investments such as penny stocks.
