Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle, speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld 2017 conference in San Francisco on October 3, 2017.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | beautiful images
Prophecy Chairman Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the company is moving its world headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to a major health care center.
In a wide-ranging conversation with former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Ellison said Oracle is moving a “huge campus” to Nashville, “which will eventually be our world headquarters “. He said Nashville is a reputable medical center and a “great place to live,” one that Oracle employees are excited about.
“It's at the heart of the industry we're most interested in, which is the health care industry,” Ellison said.
This announcement appears to be groundbreaking. “I shouldn't have said that,” Ellison told Frist, a longtime health care industry veteran who represents Tennessee in the Senate. The pair spoke during a side chat at the Oracle Healthcare Summit in Nashville.
Oracle shares were virtually unchanged in extended trading Tuesday.
Oracle moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley Austin, Texas in 2020. The company has made major efforts in the healthcare sector in recent years, most notably with acquisition worth $28 billion by medical records software giant Cerner. Ellison said Tuesday that Oracle is relatively new to the healthcare sector, but he believes the company has a “moral obligation” to address the issues facing the industry.
Nashville was one main player in healthcare for decades and the city is now home to a vibrant network of health systems, startups and investment firms. The city's reputation as a health care center was boosted when HCA Healthcare, one of the first for-profit hospital companies in the United States, was founded there in 1968.
HCA helped attract many healthcare professionals to Nashville, and other organizations quickly followed. Oracle has been developing its new $1.2 billion campus in the city for about three years. Tennessee.
“Our people love it here, and we think it's central to our future,” Ellison said.
Oracle did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
