Actor Mark Ruffalo, a vocal opponent of Paramount's $111 billion (£87 billion) acquisition of Warner Bros., has escalated his campaign by linking Oracle founder Larry Ellison, whose fortune is bankrolling the deal, to Israel's military effort in Gaza. On Instagram, Ruffalo shared footage of former Oracle chief Safra Catz discussing the firm's technology at a 2024 summit, describing the war as a "genocide" built on "an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle." Paramount responded unusually forcefully, calling the remarks antisemitic and urging Ruffalo to lower the rhetoric, in an escalating public dispute over one of Hollywood's biggest pending mergers.

Larry Ellison, Oracle's co-founder and worth roughly $200 billion, is the father of Paramount chief executive David Ellison and a key financial backer of the Warner Bros deal. Ruffalo has previously testified against the merger before a Senate hearing and signed an open letter with hundreds of other actors opposing it. Paramount's spokesperson said invoking terms such as "genocide" and "apartheid" in a corporate dispute "cheapens" real suffering and constitutes an antisemitic trope, while insisting the studio does not tolerate prejudice and hopes the merger will be judged "on the legal merits." Oracle, meanwhile, has grown into a major AI and TikTok-related player, and its technology has faced separate criticism from critics of Israel's war in Gaza.