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Larry Ellison is known for being a co-founder of Oracle, a close consultant on AI on the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during Donald Trump's second term, and the second largest fortune in the world, according to the Forbes millionaires list. The millionaire invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a technological agriculture project on Lanai, his private island in Hawaii, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Their idea was to revolutionize the way they produce food through an innovative and sustainable approach, combining advanced technology with modern hydroponic farming methods.

To carry out the project, Ellison created the company Sensei Ag, which promised to develop an innovative vegetable growing model that would allow food production to multiply in the future. However, this ambitious plan has not developed as Ellison expected and has become another example of the technological challenges that agriculture faces.

Lanai, Ellison's Paradise

In 2012, Larry Ellison bought 98% of the island of Lanai, Hawaii, for just under $300 million. Their intention, in addition to turning it into their vacation retreat, was to transform it into a sustainability laboratory.

One of its key projects was the development of vertical farming by Sensei Ag, which aimed to produce fresh, healthy food using less land area and natural resources.

According to WSJ, Ellison allocated an initial investment of $500 million with the aim of building six greenhouses equipped with high technology and designing a smart irrigation system that would optimize water use.

"Greenhouse structures were optimized for tulips in Holland in the 17th century and have not undergone major improvements since then," said David Agus, a friend of Ellison and one of the founders of Sensei Ag.

Sensei Ag built greenhouses and equipped them with advanced sensors, artificial intelligence and climate control systems. These greenhouses had to ensure the conditions conducive to producing high-quality fruits, vegetables and other foods, reducing environmental impact. Furthermore, the Oracle founder planned to use renewable energy to power these facilities to create a complete sustainable model, so that it could be deployed in other parts of the world. The island did not make it easy for them.

If something can fail, it will fail

In the 1920s, Lanai became a huge estate dedicated to pineapple cultivation, to the point of producing 75% of the world's supply of this fruit. This intensive cultivation and the chemical agents used to accelerate ripening wreaked havoc on the fields, reducing the productivity of the island's soil.

The island's climate also posed problems as the Israeli engineers who built the greenhouses did not take into account either the island's humidity or its gusts of wind. So the $12 million greenhouse covers were blown up, sending the repair cost up to $50 million.

Elon Musk, a personal friend of Larry Ellison, was in charge of providing the solar panels that would power the greenhouse technology. However, again the strong winds constantly dirty the panels that were rendered useless. As The Wall Street Journal article pointed out, on many occasions they had to obtain electricity by connecting diesel generators.

In addition to failing roofs, solar power, and land, Sensei Ag employees had to deal with an unexpected problem: failures in Wi-Fi coverage. It may seem like a lesser evil, but in a high-tech greenhouse where there are hundreds of sensors that regulate light, temperature, humidity or ventilation, having Wi-Fi makes the difference between a successful harvest or a failure.

500 million dollars worth of cherry tomatoes

Although the Sensei Ag plans were very ambitious, the project faced the same profitability dilemmas that farmers suffer in any corner of the planet. "The vision was very big, but then it slowly became diluted as we faced the realities of implementation on Lanai," said En Young, former general manager of the Lanai facility.

The operating costs of the advanced facilities and maintenance of the greenhouses were too high compared to the income generated from the sale of food. And Sensei became the largest producer of different types of lettuce and cherry tomatoes in Hawaii. Its founding goal of "feeding the world" has been an absolute failure.

Now, the project will focus on the development of agricultural management software, using its greenhouses as a testing laboratory, with the aim of selling the necessary software and hardware in the form of a package that other farms can franchise.

In addition, it has begun operations in southern California to implement robotic cultivation systems that automate the care of the plantations, and they acquired 11 hectares south of Austin (Texas) and the former headquarters of the robotic agriculture company Iron Ox. The investment amounts to 40 million dollars with which it intends to expand its market beyond Hawaii.

For Lanai, the partial closure of the Sensei Ag project raised questions about Ellison's long-term plans for the island. Some residents criticized that their agricultural resources were used for technological experiments rather than to help supply supplies to the island, which must import between 80% and 90% of the products it consumes.

Image | Sensei Ag, Unsplash (David Holifield), Flickr (Oracle PR)