Oracle Corp. is eyeing Nashville as its next international headquarters.
The Nashville Business Journal reports that Oracle chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison noted during a local health care industry meeting the Austin, Texas-based computer technology giant eventually wants to make Music City — already with a major Eastern U.S. presence for Oracle — its main home. Details about the move — a date, what will become of the Austin campus, how the effort might accelerate Oracle’s developing its River North raw land, etc. — are unclear.
Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977, with the company having been headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., until it relocated to Austin in 2020.
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In 2022, Oracle acquired health care technology company Cerner Corp. for $28.3 billion, with the purchase providing some context regarding why Ellison and the company eventually envision Nashville as the global headquarters.
Ellison’s disclosure at the meeting comes after Oracle in December 2022 paid $23 million for a segment of the River North property planned for the local campus (read here). The acquisition (the company’s most recent) of that 1.6-acre property came about 18 months after Oracle paid more than $253 million in 13 separate transactions for the bulk of the River North property needed for what was then to have been be a regional campus (and, eventually, an international HQ). The 2021 transaction seemingly was the largest real estate deal in Davidson County history at the time.
Also in 2021, the State Funding Board approved a $63 million grant for Oracle, with the funds to counter some of the construction and land purchase expenses the company will incur while undertaking its future River North campus on the Cumberland River’s East Bank.
Oracle currently leases space in the Radius office building in Capitol View as a preliminary move until it establishes the River North presence.
Oracle seeks to create about 8,500 local jobs by 2031 via the $1.35 billion development of the approximately 70 acres it owns at River North.
Oracle was home to about 722 Nashville employees at 2023’s end, the NBJ reports, citing state records.
Online source CompaniesMarketCap ranks Oracle as the world’s 29th largest public company, with a market capitalization of about $315.15 billion.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
