The Money Maker Brains

Larry Ellison - $54,300,000,000

Larry Ellison stepped down as Oracle CEO in 2014, but still calls some of the shots at the database-software giant. In 2015 he announced that Oracle was expanding its cloud-computing business, putting it in direct competition with Amazon.com's Web Services unit. Oracle could use a new source of growth. Revenues this year through May fell slightly from the previous year to $38.2 billion. After building databases for the CIA, Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and tapped into businesses' growing need for customer relationship management databases. Both of his children are looking to leave their mark on Hollywood. Daughter Megan has financed films such as "Zero Dark Thirty" and "American Hustle"; son David is a producer of mainstream franchises like "The Terminator" and "Mission: Impossible".