Oracle CEO Clay Maguirk (right) speaks during a press tour of the Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas, September 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oracle Wall Street just ended its worst week in 25 years as concerns continue to grow over the software company’s debt load and whether its investments in artificial intelligence will pay off.
The stock is down 19% this week, falling at least 2.6% in each of the last five days. It’s the sharpest weekly drop since a 20% drop in August 2001, at the height of the dot-com crash.
The last nine months have been brutal for Oracle investors. After the company reached a peak market capitalization of $900 billion in September amid growing enthusiasm for Oracle’s artificial intelligence customers, the stock has lost about 55% of its value. The crux of the problem is that for Oracle to meet its AI infrastructure commitments, primarily to OpenAI, it must raise record amounts of debt, creating balance sheet risk while focusing on lower-margin offerings.
Oracle’s debt stood at about $130 billion at the end of May, with capital spending rising 162% to nearly $56 billion in fiscal 2026. The company aims to open data centers with cloud giants Amazon, Microsoft And Googlebut without being able to sell a full range of technologies like its competitors.
Oracle posted negative free cash flow of nearly $24 billion in its most recent fiscal year. Oracle said earlier this month that it plans to raise $40 billion in fiscal 2027 through debt and equity financing, including the $20 billion equity sale it previously announced, following $43 billion from debt sales and $5 billion from equity issuances in the last fiscal year.
“We expect funding/leverage and equity issuance tempo to remain central investor discussions in the near term, even as demand signals remain strong,” Evercore analysts wrote in a note Wednesday, with a buy rating on the stock.
Like Evercore, most companies remain bullish on Oracle’s prospects despite growing investor concerns. According to FactSet, 71% of analysts rate the stock a buy, the highest percentage in 15 years.
Oracle did not respond to a request for comment.
Oracle faces numerous obstacles in the market. In addition to its huge capital requirements, the company is trading lower due to a sell-off in software titles as investors fear artificial intelligence models will replace many of its product capabilities. iShares Advanced Technology and Software ETF (IGV) fell 16% in 2026, and Oracle fell 24%.
In its annual report last week, Oracle said its workforce fell 13% to 141,000 employees in fiscal 2026, with a noticeable decline in sales and marketing.
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder, was absent from an earnings conference call this month, leaving co-CEOs Clay Maguirk and Mike Sicilia and newly appointed CFO Hilary Maxson to answer questions.
“Hilary has a hard life,” Maguirk said by phone.
Due to the fall in Oracle’s stock price, Ellison was overtaken on the list of the world’s richest people by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell. Ellison is still worth more than $200 billion.
Oracle is moving forward with its growth plans, targeting data centers in Michigan, New Mexico and Texas in 2027.
“As we pursue these opportunities, we will remain focused on disciplined capital allocation, maintaining a strong balance sheet and maintaining our investment-grade credit rating,” Maxson said during an earnings call this month.
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