The lesson of Larry Ellison’s misadventures in farming

Larry Ellison’s leap into agriculture with his company, Sensei Farmsserves a classic memory: being a genius in an arena does not mean success in another. As The WSJ reportsThe Oracle co-founder started to reinvent agriculture on Hawaiis Lāna’i island, which he collected in 2012 for $ 300 million. The project is still emphasized eight years and $ 500 million later.

Ellison dreamed of AI-driven greenhouses and robot harvesters who sustainably feed the world. Instead, Sensei Farms from Tech Snarls-like Wi-Fi problems and solar collectors were stumbled and rookie errors. Think of greenhouses for Israel’s desert climate when Lāna’i is typically humid. The company also mixed mature and baby plants together, a blueprint for a pest paradise.

Sensei, co -founded by A Physician And currently led Small victories from a technology manager who heads Sensei from Boston, reports the WSJ. They are salad and cherry tomatoes in the few local markets and restaurants on the island. But constant delays, leadership and expensive mistakes, including cannabis growth houses that had to be gutted and rebuilt, emphasize a tough truth: Even funding without Bottomless is not for the hard lessons of a specialized industry.

Above: Larry Ellison and his co -founder in Sensei Farms, David Agus