Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who has enough money to own an island, won’t be living in his recently purchased $80 million Palm Beach estate but rather demolishing it.

Why? Well, first, let’s back up. The billionaire actually does own an island – or at least 98% of one: Lanai, one of the Hawaiian Islands. He likes it so much that he’s extending his pandemic-inspired stay there indefinitely.

In an email to employees this week, Ellison said he bought the 15,000-square-foot home in South Florida, adding he’s “tearing the house down and not moving to Florida,” according to Recode’s Theodore Schleifer.

“Last year I moved from California to the island of Lana’i and became a resident of the State of Hawaii,” Ellison wrote. “I love it here and have no plans to move back to Florida, Texas, back to California … or anywhere else.”

That Palm Beach mansion has a few perks:

At 7.35 acres, it was purchased from hedge-fund manager Gabe Hoffman, the head of Accipiter Capital Management. It has seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and three half-bathrooms as well as a VIP guest suite.

It also offers a large private pool, theater, wine room, chef’s kitchen, tennis court and – like any respectable billionaire’s house – it’s accessible via helicopter.

So why knock it down? 

Could be a plan to make the place worth even more down the road. Another savvy investment for the future. 

Ellison always will have Hawaii, it seems, given that he plans to use “the power of Zoom to work” from the island, he wrote in an email to Oracle employees following his COVID-era move to paradise.

Ellison purchased nearly 98% of the island of Lanai in 2012 for a reported $300 million, and his wellness company, Sensei, is working on global food supply, nutrition, and sustainability. 

Add comment