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Larry Ellison, Oracle's cofounder and chief technology officer.
- Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison said President Trump has his support in a new interview with Forbes.
- "I don't think he's the devil - I support him and want him to do well," Ellison said.
- Ellison and Oracle CEO Safra Catz are among Trump's top supporters in the tech industry. Catz joined Trump's transition team in 2016, and Ellison recently allowed Trump to use his California compound for a fundraiser.
- Oracle is working with the US government to help find a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The cloud-computing giant set up a global crowdsourcing tool that will allow doctors and patients to record their responses after testing treatments.
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Oracle's Larry Ellison is embarking on a quest to help the US government combat the spread of the coronavirus, and says his support lies firmly with President Donald Trump amid the pandemic.
"We only have one president at a time," Ellison told Forbes in a new interview. "I don't think he's the devil - I support him and want him to do well."
Ellison told Forbes that while he supports any president currently in office, he has never given money to Trump's campaign. He has, however, helped Trump fundraise.
Ellison, who is the world's fifth-richest person with a net worth over $60 billion, cofounded Oracle and currently serves as the company's chief technology officer. Along with CEO Safra Catz, who joined Trump's transition team in 2016, Ellison has been one of Trump's top supporters in the tech industry.
In February, Ellison hosted a fundraiser at his compound in Rancho Mirage, California, for Trump's reelection campaign, where attendees could pay $100,000 for a golf outing and a photo with the president. Ellison told Forbes that while he told Trump he could use the property, Ellison himself did not attend. Still, the fundraiser sparked backlash and protests among Oracle's employees, who said Ellison's association with Trump "damages our company culture."
On Tuesday, Ellison and Catz told Oracle employees that it set up a cloud system to help the government speed up the process for finding a cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Oracle also set up a global crowdsourcing tool - which it calls a "therapeutic learning system" - that will allow doctors and patients to record their responses after testing COVID-19 drug treatments.
According to Forbes, Oracle's work with the government comes after a recent call between Ellison and Trump - Trump told Ellison during the call that the government doesn't currently have any real-time tracking system for treatment outcomes, and Ellison offered to set one up for free.
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