Trump Ally Larry Ellison’s Shadow Empire: The Billionaire Taking Over U.S. Media

Trump Ally Larry Ellison’s Shadow Empire: The Billionaire Taking Over U.S. Media

A quiet revolution is reshaping America’s information landscape. Billionaire tech titan Larry Ellison — one of Donald Trump’s most loyal Silicon Valley allies — and his son, producer-turned-media-mogul David Ellison, are assembling a multi-billion-dollar empire that now spans CBS, Paramount, and potentially TikTok. Insiders say it’s not just a merger of media power — it’s the foundation of a new digital state.

A New Kind of Media Power

When Skydance, David Ellison’s production company, merged with Paramount this summer in an $8 billion deal, few realized it would trigger one of the most sweeping private media consolidations in U.S. history.

At 42, David suddenly controlled CBS, Paramount Pictures, and a global content machine — all underwritten by his father’s vast Oracle fortune. Larry Ellison, worth roughly $345 billion, has since leveraged political and corporate connections to secure Oracle’s planned minority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations.

If approved, the father-and-son duo would command an empire that unites television, film, and the most addictive social platform on the planet — a network that influences how millions think, vote, and consume.

“This isn’t diversification,” said a former CBS executive. “It’s centralization — influence concentrated under one family name.”

Trump’s Silicon Valley Connection

Ellison’s friendship with Donald Trump has become more than social. From hosting fundraisers at his Rancho Mirage estate to appearing at the White House to announce the $500 billion Project Stargate AI infrastructure, Ellison’s political reach now stretches into the heart of Washington’s power circuits.

Though David Ellison has publicly supported Democrats, donating nearly $1 million to Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign, political insiders describe the duo as “two halves of one strategy” — pairing Larry’s political leverage with David’s Hollywood storytelling machine.

That alignment helped smooth the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger after CBS agreed to “ensure a diversity of viewpoints” and quietly settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the network.

The Bari Weiss Shock

Tension inside CBS erupted when reports confirmed that Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and outspoken critic of “woke journalism,” would become editor-in-chief of CBS News.

The move followed Paramount’s $150 million acquisition of The Free Press. To veterans of the Cronkite era, it felt like an ideological earthquake.

“CBS was once the voice of middle America,” said a senior producer. “Now it’s the battleground for a new culture war.”

Weiss says her mission is to “rebuild trust through transparency,” but many in the newsroom view her appointment as symbolic — the public face of a deeper reprogramming engineered from the top.

The Architecture of Influence

Unlike traditional media dynasties, the Ellisons’ reach fuses technology, entertainment, and data into one seamless feedback loop.

• Oracle: controls cloud systems powering U.S. agencies and streaming data infrastructure.

• Paramount Skydance: produces blockbusters and controls CBS News distribution.

• The Free Press: injects editorial ideology directly into network pipelines.

• TikTok U.S. spin-off: under negotiation — potentially granting real-time access to behavioral data from 150 million users.

“This is Rupert Murdoch meets OpenAI,” said Anthony Palomba of the University of Virginia. “They’re merging storytelling with surveillance.”

How CBS Became Ground Zero

Within CBS, budgets have quietly shifted toward digital-first projects led by Skydance executives. Editorial managers are being replaced by advisors aligned with The Free Press. Internal memos stress “trust, diversity of viewpoints, and balance” — language lifted almost word-for-word from FCC chairman Brendan Carr’s merger statement.

One producer described the mood as “orderly unease.” Another put it bluntly: “You don’t need to tell journalists what to say. You just change who signs the paychecks.”

The Secret Project Nobody’s Talking About

Behind these moves, whispers swirl about a clandestine initiative known inside Oracle circles as Project OracleVision.

According to three executives familiar with early briefings, the project combines Oracle’s AI division with engineers recruited from OpenAI, Palantir, and TikTok’s algorithm teams. Its reported goal: to develop a system capable of mapping and predicting public sentiment across all major platforms — from CBS broadcasts to social-media feeds.

One source called it “a newsroom that listens to America in real time.” Another described it as “a digital nervous system for media power.”

If true, OracleVision would allow the Ellisons not only to distribute information, but to anticipate and shape audience reactions before stories even break.

“This isn’t about censorship,” said a former Paramount strategist. “It’s about calibration — training the narrative to obey.”

Neither Oracle nor Paramount Skydance has confirmed the project, but job listings and AI research contracts hint that something massive — and profoundly political — is taking form inside the Ellison ecosystem.

The Next Front: TikTok, AI, and Narrative Control

Oracle’s proposed TikTok stake could amplify OracleVision’s reach, granting unprecedented insight into real-time user behavior. Integrated with Project Stargate’s super-computing cloud, the system could model public emotion, forecast political movements, and algorithmically optimize media output.

Critics call it the holy grail of influence — a loop that connects the screen, the cloud, and the citizen.

“It’s not the news that’s being automated,” warned one AI ethicist. “It’s consent.”

What Comes Next: Consolidation or Collapse?

Insiders say the Ellisons are already exploring partnerships with Warner Bros Discovery and CNN Studios, with one goal: a vertically integrated network that rivals Disney in entertainment and outpaces Fox in ideological reach.

Whether this vision endures may depend on how the public responds once the scale of their influence becomes impossible to ignore.

“We’ve entered an era where billionaires don’t just buy media — they buy meaning,” Palomba said. “And that’s a far more dangerous currency.”

If Project OracleVision is real, it won’t just change how America watches the news — it will redefine who decides what’s true.