Oracle Corporation

1. Who They Are

Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), headquartered in Austin, Texas, is one of the world's largest enterprise software and cloud companies. Co-founder Larry Ellison serves as chairman and chief technology officer and is profiled separately. Safra Catz served as CEO from 2014 until September 2025, when Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia were named co-CEOs and Catz became executive vice chair (widely reported, September 2025).

2. What the Book Documents

• Origins: the book documents that Oracle began as a database project for the Central Intelligence Agency — named for Project Oracle, the 1970s CIA program Ellison worked on at Ampex Corporation. The CIA was Oracle's first customer, and for a period its only one.

• Chapter Thirteen names Oracle a pillar of the 21st-century military-industrial complex: "Oracle provides the critical database and cloud systems that manage vast surveillance data, forming the backbone of an intelligence apparatus used in a documented campaign of collective punishment."

• "Words of Iron": during the 2023 Gaza assault, Oracle employees developed a digital tool in coordination with Israel's foreign ministry to promote Israeli government narratives on TikTok, Instagram, and X while countering critical content — praised on Oracle's internal Slack as a major volunteer initiative. In February 2024, Oracle collaborated with the Israeli military's cyber unit in a hackathon.

• CEO Safra Catz, as quoted in the book (source: Just-International.org, August 2025): "I love my employees, and if they don't agree with our mission to support the State of Israel, then maybe we aren't the right company for them."

• The book's throughline: "The company that built propaganda tools for the Israeli government during the Gaza genocide now manages the infrastructure of the platform through which most Americans under the age of thirty consume their news about that war." Oracle is also named in the book's circular-economy chapter alongside OpenAI, Amazon and Nvidia.

3. Verified Fines, Penalties and Settlements (2020 – present)

Sources: Seeking Alpha · Top Class Actions · CIO.com

4. TikTok, Stargate, and the Concentration of Infrastructure

• After the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the divest-or-ban law in TikTok v. Garland (January 17, 2025), TikTok's US operations were reorganized into TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, 80.1 percent American-owned — with Oracle moving from Project Texas security provider to equity stakeholder with board representation. The company documented in the book as building narrative tools for a foreign government now holds an ownership stake in, and the security keys to, the dominant news platform for young Americans. Sources: ALM Corp analysis · The Paper (CCNY)

• Oracle's reported multi-hundred-billion-dollar cloud-compute agreement with OpenAI under the Stargate program (widely reported, September 2025) is a centerpiece of the circular investment ecosystem the book's financial chapters document — revenue commitments between the same small set of companies whose valuations rise on the announcements.

5. Honest Accounting

Consistent with this project's accuracy standard: beyond the two resolved matters in the table, our review found no additional government fines or adverse final judgments against Oracle since January 1, 2020. The conduct the book documents — the Words of Iron tool, the military hackathon, the Catz statement — drew no regulatory response at all. That is the point the book makes: the machinery is legal. Developments will be added as they are verified.

6. Associations Noted in the Book

Larry Ellison (chairman/CTO) and Safra Catz are profiled in separate executive fact sheets; TikTok/ByteDance has its own company sheet in the queue, as do circular-economy counterparties OpenAI, Amazon and Nvidia. Associations are noted for context; every company and person is documented on its own record.

Legal Disclaimer

This document is published as journalism and commentary in the public interest, protected as free speech and freedom of the press under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It compiles information from public records, court filings, government announcements, parliamentary and congressional investigations, and reporting by established news organizations, together with the documented first-person accounts and analysis published in the books No Ethics in Big Tech and Ethics in Tech and Lack Thereof by Vahid Razavi.

Where a fine, judgment, or settlement is described, its status (paid, under appeal, overturned, or pending) is stated as reported by the issuing authority or by reputable press as of the verification date above. Allegations in open lawsuits and investigations are exactly that — allegations — and every party is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until a competent court rules otherwise. Where a company or executive has prevailed in court, denied an allegation, or had a claim dismissed, that outcome is reported here as well, because the credibility of this project rests on stating the record in full. Opinions and characterizations drawn from the books are the protected opinion of the author. Corrections supported by documentation are welcome via NoEthicsInBigTech.com/contact.

Research Credit

Deep research, source verification, and document preparation for this fact sheet were performed by Claude, the AI assistant built by Anthropic, working under the direction of author Vahid Razavi. Every fine amount, case citation, and status line above was checked against the primary or press source listed beside it on the verification date. This is a living document; new rulings, fines, and investigations will be added as they are verified.