Larry Ellison Donates $30 Million to Tim Scott's Super PAC Over 2021-2022

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison donated $30 million to Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC supporting Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), over the course of 2021 and 2022. This massive contribution followed an initial $5 million donation in October 2020, bringing Ellison’s total support for Scott to $35 million by 2022, making him by far the single largest donor to Scott’s political operation.

Ellison’s donations to the pro-Scott super PAC represented one of the largest individual contributions to any political candidate during the 2022 election cycle. The Opportunity Matters Fund primarily supported Scott’s Senate campaigns and political positioning for a potential 2024 presidential run. Scott publicly acknowledged Ellison’s role as a mentor, stating at his 2024 presidential campaign launch that Ellison was “one of my mentors,” demonstrating the close personal relationship between the tech billionaire and the South Carolina senator.

The substantial donations came during a period when Oracle was competing for and executing multibillion-dollar government contracts, including the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E) contract awarded in November 2020 and expanding Pentagon cloud contracts. Oracle’s political spending through Ellison’s personal donations—combined with the company’s lobbying expenditures exceeding $11 million annually—created a comprehensive strategy to influence federal policy and procurement decisions.

Ellison’s financial backing of Scott exemplifies how tech billionaires use super PACs to build relationships with influential lawmakers while their companies pursue lucrative government contracts. The timing of these donations—overlapping with Oracle’s pursuit of intelligence community and Defense Department cloud contracts—raises questions about whether political contributions influence the award of sensitive national security contracts. While super PAC donations are technically independent of candidates’ campaigns, the close relationship between Ellison and Scott, combined with Scott’s position on Senate committees relevant to tech policy, suggests these contributions facilitate access and influence.

This pattern of political investment through super PACs allows billionaires like Ellison to support candidates who may influence regulatory and procurement decisions affecting their companies, while maintaining a degree of separation that obscures direct quid pro quo arrangements. The $30 million in donations positioned Ellison as a major power broker within Republican politics, creating obligations and relationships that could benefit Oracle’s business interests across multiple policy domains.