LONG. MARIA: BUT FIRST, ONE OF SILICON VALLEY'S BIGGEST GIANTS, HE'S BEEN CALLED THE GODFATHER OF TECHNOLOGY, THE IRON MAN OF BUSINESS, ORACLE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN LARRY ELLISON IN IN THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW. SO, LARRY, LET ME TURN TO YOU, YOU'RE A STATESMAN IN THE INDUSTRY, OBVIOUSLY, YOU'VE BEEN AROUND A LONG TIME AND HAVE WATCHED SMALL COMPANIES BECOME BIG COMPANIES, TRY COMPETE WITH YOU. -- TRY TO COMPETE WITH YOU. ASSESS INDUSTRY, WHAT STRIKES YOU MOST ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE SEEN OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS? >> SOMETIMES I LIKEN THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY, THAT CERTAIN BRANDS GET VERY, VERY POPULAR. IBM, WHEN I FIRST CAME INTO THE INDUSTRY, WAS THE ULTIMATE BRAND. IT WAS NOT A COMPANY AGAINST WHOM YOU WOULD COMPETE, IT WAS AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH YOU WOULD COMPETE. AMAZON NOW IS KIND OF THE NUMBER THE ONE BRAND IN INFRASTRUCTURE CLOUD COMPUTING. LET ME TELL YOU AN INTERESTING FACT. AMAZON DOES NOT USE AWS TO RUN THEIR BUSINESS. AMAZON RUNS THEIR ENTIRE BUSINESS ON TOP OF ORACLE, ON TOP OF ORACLE DATABASE. THEY HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO MIGRATE TO AWS. BECAUSE IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. NOW, I KEEP SAYING THIS, AND BECAUSE THEY JUST SPENT ANOTHER $50 MILLION WITH US LAST YEAR BUYING STILL MORE ORACLE DATABASE. I KEEP SAYING THIS, SAYING, WELL, MAYBE OUR DATABASE IS BETTER THAN AMAZON'S DATABASES? WHY ELSE WOULD AMAZON KEEP BUYING OUR DATABASE? THEY LAST YEAR BRAVELY SAID THEY'RE SICK OF THESE COMMENTS OF MINE, AND THEY'RE GOING TO MOVE OFF OF ORACLE BY 020. GUESS WHAT? -- 2020? THEY JUST MOVED A BUNCH OF THEIR WAREHOUSES OFF OF ORACLE, AND GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? I'LL SEND YOU A COPY OF AMAZON'S INTERNAL MEMO. THEY WENT DOWN, IT FAILED, THEY HAD A HUGE OUT AN. AND THEY SAID IF THEY'D STAYED WITH THE ORACLE DATABASE, THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. THE ORACLE DATABASE MANAGES MOST OF THE WORLD'S DATA TODAY, TEN YEARS AGO. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. ALL OF WORLD'S IMPORTANT, VALUABLE DATA IS IN AN ORACLE DATA A BASE. AMAZON WON'T USE ITS OWN DATABASES TO RUN ITS BUSINESS. SO OUR JOB, SO WHAT HAVE WE DONE WRONG, OKAY? SO, OKAY, IF YOU GUYS ARE SO GREAT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WRONG? WELL, WE DIDN'T GET OUR DATABASE TO CLOUD QUICKLY ENOUGH. SO IF YOU WANTED A CLOUD DATABASE, YOU HAD TO GO TO AMAZON FOR A DATABASE, AND THEN YOU'RE ABLE TO GO TO MICROSOFT FOR A DATABASE. IT TOOK US A WHILE FOR US TO BUILD A SECURE CLOUD. IT'S REALLY HARD TO BUILD A SECURE CLOUD. IT TOOK US A WHILE. WE THINK WE'RE THERE NOW. WE HAVE BY FAR AND AWAY THE BEST DATABASE IN WORLD. NOTHING'S CLOSE. WE SHOW A SERIES OF BENCHMARKS WHERE WE'RE TEN TIMES PASTOR HAND AMAZON. MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE'RE TEN TIMES CHEAPER TO RUN THE SAME EXACT THING THAN AMAZON ON OUR DATABASE. SO IF IF YOU WANT ALL THAT SECURITY AND RELIABILITY, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO SPEND LESS. THAT'S WHAT WE'VE SHOWN IN A SERIES OF BENCHMARKS. EVEN AMAZON CAN'T MOVE. MARIA: THAT'S INCREDIBLE, THE FACT THAT THEY'RE A CUSTOMER, AND YOU CONTINUE TO POKE THEM, TO MAKE -- BECAUSE THEY'RE TRYING TO GET AT YOUR MARKET SHARE IN ONE AREA, AND YET THEY'RE ON YOUR DATABASE PLATFORM. >> PEOPLE SAY ORACLE HAS NO CHANCE, AMAZON'S GOING TO DOMINATE EVERYTHING. YOU'D THINK ONE OF THE EARLY CUSTOMERS AT AMAZON WOULD MOVE, HOW ABOUT AMAZON? MARIA: HOW TO YOU KEEP THAT LEADING POSITION? >> WELL, WE THINK WE HAVE, I DON'T KNOW, 10-20 YEAR LEAD ON AMAZON IN DATABASES. LET ME PROVE IT. ANOTHER THING, AMAZON USES ORACLE, NOT AMAZON. AMAZON'S TRANSPROCESSING DATA THAT BASE IS CALLED AURORA. AURORA IS AN OPEN SOURCE DATABASE. THEY JUST PICKED UP AND THEY CLOSE SOURCED ON AMAZON, THEY DIDN'T WRITE IT. THEY DIDN'T WRITE ANY OF IT. THEY MADE IT AVAILABLE ON THEIR CLOUD. WELL, SO WHO OWNS AURORA? WHO DROPS AURORA? THAT WOULD BE ORACLE. IT'S CALLED MY SEQUEL. THAT'S OUR SMALL OPEN SOURCE DATABASE THAT THEY CLAIM IS THEIR BIG TRANSACTION PROCESSING TATA BASE THAT'S GOING TO -- DATABASE THAT'S GOING TO REPLACE ORACLE. IT'S JUST PREPOSTEROUS. YOU KNOW? AMAZON DIDN'T EVEN DEVELOP THE AMAZON DATABASE. IT'S JUST A CHUNK OF OPEN SOURCE THAT WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CALLED MY SEQUEL. MY SEQUEL DOES NOT COMPARE WITH THE ORACLE DATABASE. THERE'S A REASON AMAZON USES ORACLE. YOU KNOW WHO ELSE USES ORACLE? IS ANOTHER COMPANY THAT HATES US, SAP USES ORACLE EVERYWHERE. SAP TEN YEARS AGO SAID I HATE ORACLE, I'M GETTING OFF OF ORACLE, I CAN'T STAND THESE GUYS, ESPECIALLY THIS GUY THAT GOES ON TV AND MAKES FUN OF US. [LAUGHTER] BECAUSE WE HAVE GREAT NEW DATABASE CALLED HANNAH. IT'S AWESOME. WELL, THEY HAVE ALL OF THESE CLOUD SERVICES, YOU KNOW? THEY HAVE SUCCESS FACTORS. DOES IT RUN ON HAN THAT? OH, NO, IT RUNS ON ORACLE. 95, 98% OF EVERYTHING SAP DOES RUNS ON ORACLE. A DECADE LATER THEY STILL USE ORACLE, CAN'T GET TO HANNAH. THE ORACLE DATABASE BEAT IBM IN THE DATABASE BUSINESS, BEAT MICROSOFT IN THE DATABASE BUSINESS. WE'VE BEEN IN THIS BUSINESS FOR 20 YEARS CONSTANTLY MAKING OUR DATABASE BETTER. NOW IT'S THE WORLD'S FIRST AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM. ALL OF SAP'S LARGE CUSTOMERS, THE E.U. ACTUALLY DID A STUDY WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE TOP HUNDRED SAP CUSTOMERS IN EUROPE, HOW MANY OF THEM RUN THE ORACLE DATABASE. ONLY 99. [LAUGHTER] ONE ACTUALLY RAN IBM. SO WE ONLY HAVE 99 OF 100. ALL OF THEIR CLOUD SERVICES WHETHER IT'S SUCCESS FACTORS, ARIBA, ALL OF THESE PEOPLE THEY'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET OFF OF ORACLE FOR A DECADE STILL ALL RUN ORACLE. ORACLE'S JUST A MUCH BETTER DATABASE THAN ANYONE ELSE HAS. SASHA NO DELLA WAS ASKED IF I COULD HAVE ANY PIECE OF SOFTWARE IN WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE, AND HE SAID THE ORACLE DATABASE. BECAUSE IT'S THE INFORMATION AGE, AND ALL WORLD'S VALUABLE INFORMATION IS STORED IN AN ORACLE DATABASE. MARIA: CAN YOU TELL ME BACK AND TELL ME -- TAKE ME BACK AND TELL ME HOW YOU'VE DONE THIS? YOU'RE THE GODFATHER OF TECHNOLOGY. YOU'RE STILL COMING UP WITH ALL THESE INFO VEGAS, AND I CAN SEE HOW PASSIONATE YOU ARE, YOU'RE BEATING EVERYBODY, AND YOU CAME FROM SUCH HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. GREW UP ON SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO, DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE, NOW YOU HAVE COLLECTIONS OF CARS, JETS, PRIVATE HOMES, OWNING THE ISLAND OF LANAI. TELL ME HOW YOU DID IT. >> I HAD ALL THE DISADVANTAGES NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS, YOU KNOW? WHEN YOU'RE RAISED ON SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO, YOU PROBABLY WANT TO MOVE SOMEPLACE NICER. AND I THINK BE IT DOESN'T KILL YA, IT MAKES YOU STRONGER. SO I'VE ALWAYS BEEN VERY AMBITIOUS, I'VE ALWAYS BEEN VERY CURIOUS. I, YOU KNOW, MOVED TO SILICON VALLEY RIGHT AFTER I DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE, YOU KNOW, GOT A JOB AS A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER, I LEARNED HOW TO PROGRAM WHEN I WAS IN COLUMN, AND I GOT A JOB AND BUMMED AROUND AT YOSEMITE VALLEY TEACHING ROCK CLIMBING AND LEADING RIVER TRIPS DURING MY EARLY 20s. BUT THE WAY I SUPPORTED MYSELF WAS AS A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER. AND I GOT INVOLVED WITH MORE AND MORE INTERESTING AND COMPLICATED COMPUTER PROJECTS AND DECIDED TO START MY OWN COMPANY. MARIA: AND THEN? IT GREW AND GREW AND GREW, AND YOU'RE COMPETITIVE. >> YEAH. WELL, MY ORIGINAL GOAL WAS TO BUILD A COMPANY OF 50 PEOPLE, PEOPLE I ENJOYED GOING TO WORK WITH EVERY DAY AND PEOPLE THAT I RESPECTED AND ENJOYED WORKING WITH EVERY DAY. IT GOT TO BE A LITTLE BIGGER THAN THAT. WE HAVE 150,000 PEOPLE INSIDE COMPANY NOW. MARIA: AND YOU'VE GOT 440,000 CUSTOMERS, 145 COUNTRIES. WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE? >> WELL, WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE BEAT AMAZON IN CLOUD DATABASE. [LAUGHTER] MARIA: IT'S FUNNY TO O'HARE YOU SAY THAT. VERY SIMPLE. >> VERY SIMPLE. JUST LIKE PLAYING BASKETBALL. YOU KNOW, IF YOU'RE PLAYING BASKETBALL, YOU WANT TO BEAT THE WARRIORS. YOU WANT TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. SO OUR JOB, WE HAVE THE BEST DATABASE IN THE WORLD, WE'VE GOT
