Categories: loan

Oracle bet $300 billion on OpenAI. It is paying the price.

Oracle may have an OpenAI problem.

Oracle ( ORCL ) stock is down nearly 40% from its September peak, wiping more than $360 billion from its market capitalization. About $67 billion of that decline occurred on Thursday alone, as Oracle’s second-quarter results failed to ease a key concern for investors — that the company is too reliant on OpenAI ( OPAI.PVT ).

AI-fueled growth goals outlined in Oracle’s first quarter sent the stock to a record on Sept. 10, briefly making its founder, Larry Ellison, the world’s richest man. Back in September, the company told investors that its remaining performance obligations (RPO) — or the value of future revenue from signed customer contracts — had risen nearly 360% to $455 billion.

It was later revealed that ChatGPT developer OpenAI had written off at least $300 billion of its customer commitments as part of the Stargate project. Since then, its stock has struggled.

In addition to Oracle, growing concerns about the rising cost of OpenAI due to deals with firms including Nvidia ( NVDA ), CoreWeave ( CRWV ), AMD ( AMD ), and Broadcom ( AVGO ) — set to reach $1.4 trillion — and growing competition from Google’s ( GOOG ) Gemini models have made investors more belligerent.

“There’s clearly been a reversal in the market perception of OpenAI over the last couple of months,” BNB Paribas analyst Stefan Sloinski told Yahoo Finance. “The OpenAI ecosystem has obviously suffered as a result.”

Slowinski and other Wall Street analysts agree that OpenAI’s potential inability to pay for its broader AI infrastructure commitments is Oracle’s biggest risk.

Read more: How to protect your portfolio from the AI ​​bubble

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a “code red” last week as the upstart faces massive competition from Google, threatening its ability to monetize its AI products and meet its ambitious revenue goals.

“[Oracle is] This is the difficult situation where they have to build [data center] Capacity for this client and borrow a lot of money to do that when there is very high uncertainty that this client will be able to pay for that capacity,” said DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria.

Oracle’s second-quarter results only deepened investor concerns this week.

The company’s $12 billion in capital expenditures was higher than expected, just as its $10 billion in free cash flow losses and $6 billion in outflows were much heavier than expected. Oracle also raised its full-year capital forecast to $50 billion from $35 billion.

Oracle office building in Irvine, California. REUTERS/Mike Blake · Reuters / Reuters

Efforts by executives to allay concerns about the company’s high debt load, rising costs and reliance on OpenAI did not help.

In a call after Oracle’s earnings report, its new co-CEO Clay Maguire said the company has more than 700 AI customers. He said Oracle can easily redirect its AI infrastructure to serve other customers “in hours” if a single customer’s demand fails to meet.

“If there was a problem where OpenAI couldn’t pay its bills, they have the quick ability to repurpose the infrastructure for other customers,” TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood said in an interview.

The company also said it will spend no more than $100 billion to complete its data center projects and is committed to maintaining an investment-grade credit rating — as investors worry about its BBB rating on its bonds, far from junk status. Oracle also highlighted that its RPO increased by $68 billion last quarter due to new commitments from Nvidia, Meta ( META ), and other customers.

Sloinski said that, in theory, such comments should satisfy investors. But widespread concerns about the payoff for tech firms’ investments in AI have held it back.

“Right now, the market is just saying, ‘We don’t believe in returns and all this capital,'” he said.

Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @laurabratton.bsky.social. Email her at laura.bratton@yahooinc.com.

Click here for the latest technology news impacting the stock market

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

admin

Recent Posts

Archeology students excavate a mass Viking grave—a literal giant inside

Here's what you'll learn as you read this story:Cambridge University archeology graduates were on a…

2 weeks ago

Trump-appointed FCC chairman calls on TV networks to pledge to air ‘patriotic, pro-America content’ for America’s 250th birthday

Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, wants TV broadcasters to rally around the…

2 weeks ago

2 incredible stocks with 72% to 100% upside, according to Wall Street

Investors are beginning to see artificial intelligence (AI) as more of a double-edged sword than…

2 weeks ago

All truck and bus drivers will be required to take a professional driver’s license test in English

All truck and bus drivers will be required to take their commercial driver's license test…

2 weeks ago

Trump-Backed World Freedom Plots ‘Exit Mechanism’ for Maldives Hotel Tokenization Project

Holding a digital asset for four years can feel like an eternity in the cryptosphere.…

2 weeks ago

Posts show transcript of McConnell, Kevin McCarthy discussing ‘bringing back slavery’ There is no proof

In late February 2026, Snopes readers asked us about videos of Internet users hearing unidentified…

2 weeks ago