Ellison is also known for his 98% ownership stake in Lanai, the sixth-largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanai

As of 2012, the island was 98% owned by Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle Corporation;[7] the remaining 2% is owned by the state of Hawaii or is privately owned homes.[8][9]

The Hawaiian-language name Lānaʻi is of uncertain origin, but the island has historically been called Lānaʻi o Kauluāʻau, which can be rendered in English as "day of the conquest of Kauluāʻau." This epithet refers to a legend about a Mauian prince who was banished to Lanai because of his wild pranks at his father's court in Lāhainā. The island was said to be haunted by Akua-ino, ghosts and goblins that Kauluāʻau chased away, bringing peace and order to the island and regaining his father's favor as a consequence.

The history of sugar-growing in Hawaii begins in Lanai, when in 1802 a farmer from China, Wong Tse Chun, produced a small amount there. He used a crude stone mill that he had brought with him to crush the cane.[citation needed]

In 1854 a group of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were granted a lease in the ahupuaʻa of Pālāwai. In 1862 Walter M. Gibson arrived on Lānaʻi to reorganize the settlement. A year later he bought the ahupuaʻa of Pālāwai for $3000; he used money of the church but titled the land in his own name. When the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found this out they excommunicated him, but he was still able to retain ownership of the land.[citation needed][17] By the 1870s, Walter M. Gibson, then the leader of the colony on the island, had acquired most of the island’s land, which he used for ranching.[7]

By 1890, the population of Lānaʻi had been reduced to 200. In 1899, Gibson's daughter and son-in-law formed Maunalei Sugar Company, headquartered in Keomuku, on the windward (northeast) coast, downstream from Maunalei Valley. The company failed in 1901.[18] However, between 1899 and 1901 nearly 800 laborers, mostly from Japan, had been contracted to work for the plantations. Many Native Hawaiians continued to live along the less arid windward coast, supporting themselves by ranching and fishing.[19]

In 1909, Charles Gay sold the island to William G. Irwin for one dollar. Irwin's title was upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court.[20]

In 1921, Charles Gay planted the first pineapple plant on Lanai. The population had decreased again - to 150 - most of whom were the descendants of the traditional families of the island.[21] A year later, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later renamed Dole Food Company), bought the island and developed a large portion of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.

High labor- and land costs led to a decline in Hawaii pineapple production in the 1980s, and Dole phased out its pineapple operations on Lanai in 1992.[22]

In June 2012, Larry Ellison, then CEO of Oracle Corporation, purchased Castle & Cooke's 98 percent share of the island for $300 million. The state and individual homeowners own the remaining 2 percent, which includes the harbor and the private homes where the 3,000 inhabitants live.[23] Ellison, who believes renewable energy must be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in order to be viable,[24] stated his intention to invest as much as $500 million to improve the island's infrastructure and create an environmentally friendly agricultural industry.[25][26] As of 2016, Ellison had spent an estimated $450 million to remodel his Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay, which reopened in April 2016 after a seven-month shutdown. In Lanai City, he built a new water-filtration system and a resort-style, Olympic-size public pool. He also refurbished the historic movie theater (built in the 1920s but mostly shut since the 1970s), turning it into a state-of-the art movie house. His second Four Seasons Resort, at Kōʻele in the mountains, was renovated and reopened as Sensei Lanaʻi in 2020.[27] Ellison also started a solar-powered hydroponic farming venture, “Sensei,” which has two 20,000-square-foot computer-monitored greenhouses, and he plans to build four more.[28][9]

Until 2020, Ellison was in negotiations to purchase the diesel-powered utility assets of the island in order to build a sustainable power system consisting of solar power and batteries.[29][9] However, it was reported in May 2020 that, while plans to transition from using fossil fuels to renewable resources continue, the talks by Ellison's company to acquire the utility had ended.[30]

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