Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, owns about 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi; the remaining land is held by the State of Hawaii and individual homeowners.

Who owns Lānaʻi, Hawaii?

  • Primary owner: Billionaire Larry Ellison bought roughly 98% of Lānaʻi in 2012 from Castle & Cooke (then controlled by David Murdock).
  • Others: About 2% is owned by the State of Hawaii, Maui County, and private residents (including local families) who hold homes and small parcels.
  • What Ellison’s share includes: Most of the island’s land area, two Four Seasons resorts, many businesses, and key infrastructure via his management company Pūlama Lānaʻi.

Quick recent context

  • Ellison’s control has raised ongoing debates about one person owning almost an entire inhabited island, especially around housing, jobs, and cultural identity.
  • In 2025, Pūlama Lānaʻi shut down a vacation-home construction division, signaling a shift away from resort home development toward more local projects, which affected some island jobs.

Mini FAQ

  • Is Lānaʻi a private island?
    Not completely; it is part of the State of Hawaii, but one private owner controls nearly all of the land and much of the economy.
  • When did Ellison buy Lānaʻi?
    The sale closed in June 2012, with reported prices around 300–600 million dollars, though the exact figure was never officially disclosed.

TL;DR: If you’re asking “who owns Lānaʻi, Hawaii,” the practical answer is Larry Ellison (about 98%), with the rest owned by the state and individual residents.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.