Oracle amps up its AI bet with a plan to raise as much as $50 billion this year

By Emily Bary

After issuing an $18 billion bond offering last fall, Oracle intends to tap the debt and equity markets anew in 2026

Oracle's stock is down 50% from its September high.

To finance its artificial-intelligence ambitions, Oracle is looking to raise more money at a time when Wall Street has gotten more worried about the level of financing underpinning the AI boom.

The company announced on Sunday that it intends to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in "gross cash proceeds" this year, split approximately between debt and equity issuance.

To raise debt, Oracle (ORCL) plans to sell investment-grade bonds in a "one-time issuance" early this year and then doesn't anticipate any further bond issuances for 2026. On the equity side, Oracle expects to issue convertible preferred securities and also engage in an at-the-market equity program.

Don't miss (from December 2025): Why Oracle's stock - and its bonds - can't shake off AI spending fears

"This funding plan reflects Oracle's commitment to maintaining an investment-grade rating, prudent capital allocation, balance-sheet strength and transparency with investors as the company continues to expand its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business," Oracle said in a statement.

Oracle shares are up 6% in volatile premarket trades. The stock has dropped 36% over the last 3 months.

The money will help Oracle "build additional capacity to meet the contracted demand" from big customers, "including AMD, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok, xAI and others," the company said.

This isn't Oracle's first attempt to raise money in pursuit of its AI buildout. In September, the company issued an $18 billion bond offering that struck some analysts as unusual for its inclusion of bonds that mature 40 years out.

See also: Why Oracle's 'jumbo' AI-fueled bond deal is so unusual

The company's ongoing need to raise money has spooked investors, and Oracle shares have fallen in half from their September peak. The company's AI buildout is heavily linked to work with OpenAI, but there's concern about the ChatGPT creator's financial model and whether the company will be able to follow through on its commitments to purchase data-center capacity over a multiyear span.

Oracle is seen as being "way too exposed and levered to OpenAI, but in the worst way," Mizuho trading-desk analyst Jordan Klein wrote in a note to clients late last month. He said that Oracle is more exposed to OpenAI's training business whereas the more compelling opportunity is in inference, or the process by which models make predictions based on new data.

But Siti Panigrahi, an analyst with Mizuho's research team, wrote Sunday evening that the latest announcement could come as some relief to investors, who already knew the company needed to raise money.

"In our recent investor conversations, several investors highlighted the need for greater clarity on Oracle's funding strategy and explicitly noted that an equity component would help restore confidence despite modest dilution," he wrote.

The "balanced" plan released on Sunday "reduces uncertainty" and also could "reduce fears of over-reliance on debt financing," Panigrahi said.

-Emily Bary

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