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When a single billionaire can fund a think tank that employs 900 staff across 45 countries and has direct access to government ministers, the line between philanthropy and influence becomes blurred.

When a single billionaire can fund a think tank that employs 900 staff across 45 countries and has direct access to government ministers, the line between philanthropy and influence becomes blurred.

Mandatory digital ID schemes tend to expand over time. What begins as an employment verification tool could evolve into a requirement for accessing healthcare, benefits, housing, and more.

Pascal Hetzscholdt
December 19, 2025

@abens31

Source: TikTok

The Oracle of Whitehall: When a Billionaire’s Cheque Book Shapes a Nation’s Digital Future

A Fact-Check of Claims About Tony Blair, Larry Ellison, and the UK’s Digital ID Agenda

by Claude

Introduction

A TikTok video has been circulating that weaves together a provocative narrative about billionaire influence over British government policy. The video claims that Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, has essentially purchased a policy pipeline into the heart of the UK government through his enormous donations to the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). According to the narrator, this creates a troubling confluence of private wealth, public data, and political access—with NHS data and a mandatory national digital ID scheme at the centre of the concern.

But how much of this is verifiable fact, and how much is conspiratorial inference? This essay examines the key claims in the transcript, cross-references them against credible investigative journalism and official sources, and offers an assessment of what the evidence actually supports.

The Core Claims and What the Evidence Shows

1. Larry Ellison’s Wealth and Influence

Claim: Ellison is the second richest person in the world, close friends with Elon Musk, and has donated heavily to Friends of the IDF, making him their biggest donor.

Verdict: Largely accurate. Ellison’s wealth has fluctuated near the top of global billionaire rankings, and in September 2025, Oracle’s surging share price briefly made him the world’s richest person. The friendship with Musk is referenced in multiple credible sources. His philanthropic support for Israel through Friends of the IDF is well-documented: in 2017, he made what was described as the largest single donation in FIDF history at $16.6 million. However, the claim that he is their “biggest donor” overall is difficult to verify precisely, though he is unquestionably among their most prominent supporters.

2. Ellison’s Vision for AI-Powered Surveillance

Claim: Ellison has said that “citizens will be on their best behaviour” because of constant AI-powered surveillance and recording.

Verdict: Verified. This is directly corroborated by multiple mainstream outlets including Fortune, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and The Register. At Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting in September 2024, Ellison stated: “We’re going to have supervision. Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report that problem... Citizens will be on their best behaviour because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” These remarks have drawn comparisons to China’s social credit system and raised concerns among civil liberties advocates.

3. Oracle and TikTok

Claim: Oracle is “on the verge of taking over” the US version of TikTok.

Verdict: Substantially accurate with nuance. “Taking over” oversimplifies a complex ownership structure, but Oracle is indeed positioned as a major player in TikTok’s US operations. Reuters reported in September 2025 that an Oracle-led consortium would control a significant stake in TikTok US, and that Oracle would oversee the platform’s algorithm and security. President Trump confirmed Oracle’s central role in the deal.

4. Safra Catz and Pro-Israel Messaging

Claim: Oracle’s CEO Safra Catz said she wants to “embed the love and respect for Israel in America’s culture.”

Verdict: Verified with provenance caveat. This quote comes from a 2015 email from Catz to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, obtained through a hack of Barak’s email account and first reported by Responsible Statecraft. The full quote reads: “We have all been horrified by the growth of the BDS movement in college campuses and have concluded that we have to fight this battle before the kids even get to college. We believe that we have to embed the love and respect for Israel in the American culture.” Oracle sources told reporters they “could not confirm the authenticity of the email,” but Catz has made numerous public statements expressing strong support for Israel.

5. Bari Weiss and CBS News

Claim: CBS News is run by someone who is a “self-proclaimed Zionist fanatic” who said “anti-Zionism is antisemitism, full stop.”

Verdict: Partially accurate. The transcript originally misidentified the person as “Larry Wise,” but the actual reference is to Bari Weiss, who was named Editor-in-Chief of CBS News in October 2025 after Paramount acquired her publication The Free Press. The quote “anti-Zionism is antisemitism, full stop” is accurate and appears in Weiss’s own essay published on The Free Press in November 2024. The characterisation “self-proclaimed Zionist fanatic” is the video narrator’s editorialisation, not Weiss’s own words.

6. The Tony Blair Institute and Ellison Funding

Claim: Ellison has donated “north of £250 million” to the Tony Blair Institute, which has “huge influence” on the UK government.

Verdict: Verified. A major investigation by Lighthouse Reports and Democracy for Sale, published in September 2025, documented that since 2021, the Larry Ellison Foundation has “donated or pledged at least £257m to the Tony Blair Institute.” The investigation, based on interviews with 29 current and former TBI staff, described the organisation as “unusually close to the British government, able to lobby ministers directly,” and alleged that it holds “joint retreats with Oracle” and engages in “tech sales” for Ellison’s company. Former staff quoted in the investigation stated: “Oracle and TBI are inseparable. It’s hard to get across just how deeply connected the two [organisations] are. The meetings were like they’re part of the same organisation.”

7. Digital ID and NHS Data

Claim: Tony Blair has been pushing for digital ID, the UK government is moving toward mandatory digital ID, and there’s a risk that NHS data could be “co-opted” by Oracle.

Verdict: The first two parts are verified; the third is inference. Tony Blair has indeed been a long-standing advocate for ID cards, dating back to his time as Prime Minister. The TBI has published numerous reports advocating for digital ID, including a September 2025 proposal for a “super ID card.” Just 48 hours after this TBI report was published, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans for a mandatory digital ID scheme for proving the right to work in the UK. The scheme has attracted over 2.9 million signatures on a parliamentary petition opposing it. However, the claim that Oracle is specifically positioned to “co-opt” NHS data remains an inference rather than a documented fact, though the Lighthouse Reports investigation did quote Ellison discussing NHS data at a Dubai summit where he was interviewed by Blair.

8. Oracle’s UK Government Contracts

Claim: Oracle has made over £1.1 billion from UK government contracts.

Verdict: Verified. According to Lighthouse Reports, Oracle has earned £1.1 billion in public-sector revenue since the start of 2022. In October 2024, Oracle won a decade-long contract worth approximately £1 billion as part of the Synergy Programme to provide cloud services to four major UK government departments: the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Home Office. This contract will create a “single operating model” and standardised data platform for nearly 250,000 civil servants.

What Is Proven and What Is Inference?

The building blocks of the narrative are largely factual: Ellison is extraordinarily wealthy and has donated heavily to pro-Israel causes. He has articulated a vision for AI-powered surveillance. Oracle is gaining significant influence over both US social media (TikTok) and UK government infrastructure. The TBI has received at least £257 million from Ellison’s foundation and appears to have unusual access to ministers. Tony Blair advocates for digital ID, and the Starmer government has announced plans to implement it.

However, the narrative’s central implication—that there is a coordinated scheme to hand over UK citizen data to Oracle for Ellison’s benefit—remains unproven. What we have is documented proximity, shared interests, and policy alignment. This is concerning from a governance and transparency perspective, but it is not evidence of a conspiracy. The Lighthouse Reports investigation was careful to note that “there is no suggestion of illegality.”

What This Means for UK Society

Regardless of whether one believes the most alarming interpretation, the documented facts raise legitimate concerns:

Power concentration: When a single billionaire can fund a think tank that employs 900 staff across 45 countries and has direct access to government ministers, the line between philanthropy and influence becomes dangerously blurred.

Vendor lock-in: Oracle’s decade-long contracts to build “single platform” infrastructure across government departments create dependencies that will be difficult to reverse.

Function creep: As civil liberties groups have warned, mandatory digital ID schemes tend to expand over time. What begins as an employment verification tool could evolve into a requirement for accessing healthcare, benefits, housing, and more.

Democratic accountability: When policy appears to emerge from think tanks funded by those who stand to profit from its implementation, public trust in democratic governance erodes—even if no formal corruption has occurred.

Conclusion

The TikTok video is not entirely wrong, but it is not entirely right either. It correctly identifies a constellation of facts—substantial funding, policy access, government contracts, and ideological alignment—that deserve public scrutiny. However, it presents these facts through a conspiratorial lens that implies a level of coordination and intent that remains unproven.

The truth may be more mundane but no less troubling: we live in an era where billionaires can purchase proximity to power, where think tanks operate as policy middleware between private interests and public decisions, and where governments are building digital infrastructures whose full implications they may not understand. Whether this represents capture, corruption, or simply the way modern governance works is a question that British citizens—and their elected representatives—need to ask more urgently than ever.

Sources

Tony Blair Institute and Ellison Funding

Lighthouse Reports — “Blair and the Billionaire” (September 24, 2025): https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/blair-and-the-billionaire/

New Statesman — “Inside the Tony Blair Institute” (September 24, 2025): https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/09/inside-the-tony-blair-institute

Larry Ellison on Surveillance

Fortune — “Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state” (September 17, 2024): https://fortune.com/2024/09/17/oracle-larry-ellison-surveillance-state-police-ai/

TechCrunch — “Oracle’s Larry Ellison says that AI will someday track your every move” (September 16, 2024): https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/16/oracle-ceo-larry-ellison-says-that-ai-will-someday-track-your-every-move/

Business Insider — “Billionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’” (September 15, 2024): https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-keep-citizens-on-their-best-behavior-2024-9

Safra Catz and Oracle on Israel

Responsible Statecraft — “TikTok investor: ‘Embed the love and respect for Israel’ in the US” (October 3, 2025): https://responsiblestatecraft.org/oracle-tiktok-israel/

Responsible Statecraft — “Oracle execs: Love Israel or maybe this isn’t the job for you” (October 7, 2025): https://responsiblestatecraft.org/oracle-tiktok-israel-2674151514/

The New Republic — “TikTok Investor Worried About ‘Love and Respect for Israel’ in the U.S.” (October 1, 2025): https://newrepublic.com/post/201194/leaked-email-oracle-ceo-tiktok-love-israel

Bari Weiss and CBS News

CBS News — “Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News” (October 6, 2025): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bari-weiss-editor-in-chief-cbs-news-paramount-the-free-press/

NPR — “Who is Bari Weiss? CBS News’ new editor-in-chief” (October 6, 2025): https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5563786/bari-weiss-cbs-news-free-press

The Free Press — “Bari Weiss: The Old World Is Not Coming Back” (November 22, 2024):

The Free Press

Bari Weiss: The Old World Is Not Coming Back

On November 12th, I spoke to the General Assembly in Washington D.C., which is an annual conference of the Jewish Federations—the largest Jewish organization in North America. There was a lot to talk about this year…

a year ago · 2174 likes · 1130 comments · Bari Weiss

Al Jazeera — “Conservative writer Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News” (October 6, 2025): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/6/conservative-writer-bari-weiss-named-editor-in-chief-of-cbs-news

UK Digital ID Scheme

UK Government — “New digital ID scheme to be rolled out across UK” (September 26, 2025): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-scheme-to-be-rolled-out-across-uk

House of Commons Library — “Digital ID in the UK” (December 2025): https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10369/

Wikipedia — “UK Digital ID”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Digital_ID

Electronic Frontier Foundation — “The UK Has It Wrong on Digital ID” (November 2025): https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/uk-has-it-wrong-digital-id-heres-why

Oracle UK Government Contracts

Oracle — “Four Major UK Government Departments Select Oracle Cloud” (October 21, 2024): https://www.oracle.com/uk/news/announcement/four-major-uk-government-departments-select-oracle-cloud-to-transform-corporate-services-2024-10-21/

Data Center Dynamics — “Oracle wins four UK gov’t contracts worth $1bn” (October 21, 2024): https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/oracle-wins-four-uk-govt-contracts-worth-1bn/

Ellison and IDF Support

Times of Israel — “Record $53.8 million raised for IDF soldiers at Beverly Hills gala” (November 2017): https://www.timesofisrael.com/record-53-8-million-raised-for-idf-soldiers-at-beverly-hills-gala/

Oracle and TikTok

Reuters — “Oracle, Silver Lake consortium to control 80% stake in TikTok in US” (September 16, 2025): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/oracle-silver-lake-consortium-control-80-stake-tiktok-us-wsj-reports-2025-09-16/

Fortune — “Larry Ellison once predicted ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’... Now his company will play a key role in social media” (September 28, 2025): https://fortune.com/2025/09/28/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-oracle-tiktok-deal-social-media/