If you’re a regular reader or listener to Graphic Policy, you know we’ve been questioning Skydance‘s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery from multiple angles. The mega corporation would not just take on a massive amount of debt but there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding how it’d raise the money to finance the deal.

We know that one of Skydance’s money daddies would be it’s CEO David Ellison‘s real daddy, Larry Ellison. Larry Ellison is the founder of Oracle and one of the wealthiest people in the world. But, Larry Ellison’s net worth has taken massive hits as Oracle has been on shaky ground. Larry Ellison was the richest person in the world briefly in September 2025 with a fortune worth nearly $393 billion but a year later, Oracle shares have fallen 62% and with it Ellison’s worth has dropped roughly $194 billion. Larry Ellison’s wealth is tide heavily into Oracle stock, which he owns 40% of, so it swings with the stock. The wipeout of on paper wealth due to the company’s focus on AI which has resulted in weak software sales and heavy costs which has created heavy debt which is now around $169 billion.

All of that is to say, Larry Ellison’s original plan to fund his nepo-baby’s venture has had massive bumps and resulted in a strategy shift.

Larry Ellison had plans to sell a $7.5 billion of his Oracle stock to help fund Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. But, that plan was canceled and instead Ellison has added to his multibillion-dollar borrowing. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, putting up shares in Oracle, Tesla, SpaceX, and Paramount as collateral, Ellison borrowed from Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, UBS, and BNP Paribas.

That borrowing has ballooned Ellison’s shares pledged to back is debt. In September, Oracle said Ellison had 413 million shares worth around $58 billion pledged which was up from 346 million shares. The Wall Street Journal article has far more details on the process, which includes the banks valuing the stock below their market value, as well as which bank gained what.

The plan gives a bit of a glimpse of how the ultrawealthy use wealth that only exists on paper to further their control.

But, that borrowing is just a small sliver of Skydance’s financial deals to make this go through. There’s also investment by Saudi Arabia, who itself is having financial struggles, as well as Redfin.

But, the rumor persists that Elon Musk will help bail out his friends. Larry Ellison has been close with Musk and invested in Musk’s plan to take over Twitter and also invested in Tesla in 2018. He also has served on that company’s board.

Billionaire media mogul John Malone predicts that Musk will invest $8 to $10 billion in the company giving Musk a foothold in the entertainment industry. Malone thinks there’ll be a deal between Skydance and Musk’s company. With David Ellison saying the future of Skydance is in leveraging technology, all of that makes sense as far as a partnership of some sorts.

With the valuation of the current Skydance being less than half of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount when they were separate, the short and long term financial situation is looking even more shaky and perilous.