Oracle appears to have ushered in major stock market corrections at the group of tech giants amid comments and warnings about a possible bubble in financial markets around artificial intelligence (AI), taking a harsh punishment over the past 40 days.
Just over a month ago, on October 9, Oracle reached its all-time high on the stock market, above $345 per share, doubling its value since the beginning of the year. The company, which a few days earlier had seen a historic 36% rise in its stock market in a single day, has skyrocketed its market capitalization to around $1 trillion. And all in the context of strong growth forecasts. The company founded by Larry Ellison announced that its portfolio of contracts in the field of artificial intelligence and cloud was approaching $500 billion, thanks to its accounts with companies like Meta, OpenAI and xAI, the start promoted by Elon Musk.
Oracle’s strong rise in the stock market has led the aforementioned Ellison to position himself as the richest man in the world, even surpassing Musk himself. The millionaire share buyback plans implemented by the company in recent years have brought the tycoon’s stake to 41% of the capital.
Since then, Oracle shares have fallen more than 35% to around $218, losing more than $350 billion in market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, yes, they still appreciate by 30%, even if the stocks do not seem to find the bottom of their declines.
Oracle’s aggressive entry into the artificial intelligence industry, fueled by mounting debt, has raised concerns on Wall Street. As he had warned Financial times This weekend, the scale and speed of the company’s strategic shift raised questions among investors, especially at a time when the spending models of big tech companies that build massive data centers, or hyperscalers, are under major overhaul. In fact, the great technology They planned a joint investment this year of $400 billion and warned that capital expenditures in 2026 will be higher than in 2025.
In Oracle’s case, it has pledged to invest hundreds of billions over the next few years in chips and data centers, primarily to bolster the computing power of OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT.
To achieve these objectives, the company did not hesitate to turn to the debt markets. In September, Oracle closed an $18 billion bond issue, up from initial plans of $15 billion, in what had until then been the second-largest debt placement of the year, behind only Mars. The company, which has issued debt for 26,000 million since the beginning of the year, took advantage of the strong interest of investors (demand exceeded 80,000 million) to expand the placement. In fact, the company even placed debt with a 40-year maturity (it issued bonds for five, seven, ten, 20, 30 and 40 years).
With the transaction, Oracle’s remaining debt currently stands at approximately $104 billion, in a scenario of strong investments. And you may need to gather more resources. Late last week CNBC said the company plans to take on another $38 billion in debt.
Now, some investment banks are not ruling out a possible downgrade of Oracle’s rating. Barclays believes the agencies will downgrade the company to BBB– (S&P and Moody’s have already placed a negative outlook), one step away from junk bonds. In this way the group may have to turn to private debt markets, the cost of which is higher.
In any case, Oracle continues to trust in its business model, with its commitment to AI, which will require a strong development of technological infrastructures. Investors will be closely following the company’s next quarterly results, which will be presented in mid-December.
Additionally, they will be the first following the broad restructuring of management leadership announced in September. Oracle then announced the appointment of two CEOs, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, with the transition of Safra Catz, CEO since 2014, to the position of executive vice president of the board of directors.
The forecasts released in September were optimistic. The company announced that it expects revenues of $166 billion from its infrastructure business. cloud in fiscal year 2030, compared to 18,000 million in fiscal year 2026. Oracle, moreover, is one of the great supporters of the Trump administration in adventures such as the acquisition of TikTok USA or the Stargate project, which aims to invest up to 500,000 million in AI infrastructure in the United States, and in which OpenAI and SoftBank also participate.
