When Larry Ellison said...

Bill Gates has long been admired for his ability to turn vision into empire, and even his fiercest competitors have acknowledged his singular business drive. Among them is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, the world’s second richest man, who once offered a striking tribute to Gates. In a 2011 conversation with TellTaleStory, Ellison remarked that while Gates might not be the most brilliant technologist, he is unmatched in stamina and determination. “Bill, forgive me, there are a lot of people in the world smarter than Bill Gates. There are very few people in the world that have his focus and endurance,” Ellison observed, describing him as “utterly relentless” and “indefatigable.”

Ellison even drew a comparison between Gates and the industrial titan John D. Rockefeller, suggesting that Gates embodied the same hunger for dominance that defined the great barons of the past. “If he were Edison, he’d be less dangerous. He is utterly relentless… he wants it all,” Ellison said, underscoring Gates’s reputation not as the most inventive mind, but as the most formidable executor in technology.

Part of Gates’s early success can be traced to his mother, Mary Gates, who was instrumental in securing Microsoft’s historic deal with IBM in 1980. That partnership propelled Microsoft into the global arena, giving the company a decisive foothold in personal computing. Earlier this year, as Microsoft marked its fiftieth anniversary, Gates himself reflected on those beginnings by sharing the original lines of code that set the company on its trajectory.

Ellison, of course, has built his own empire with equal force. His fortune has swelled dramatically in recent years, adding nearly one hundred billion dollars in wealth and placing him ahead of rivals such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Yet even at the height of his own ascent, Ellison’s candid tribute remains a reminder of the respect Gates commands within the highest circles of global business.
**This news was published on Times of India on 1st September, 2025.

 

 

 

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