New York, Feb 2, 2026 – Oracle Corp. is doubling down on artificial intelligence, announcing plans to raise $45 billion to $50 billion this year through a mix of debt and equity sales to supercharge its cloud infrastructure. The move underscores both the staggering scale of AI-driven investments in the tech sector and the financial tightrope Oracle now walks after a steep drop in its stock.
The Redwood City tech giant said the funding will be used to expand data center capacity to meet booming demand from some of the world’s largest AI players, including Meta Platforms, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok, xAI, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The announcement, released unusually on a Sunday afternoon, appears aimed at calming investor nerves before markets opened on Monday.
A Massive Bet on AI Growth
Oracle’s stock has fallen nearly 50% from its record high on September 10, 2025, wiping out roughly $460 billion in market capitalization. In premarket trading Monday, shares dropped another 3%, following a 2.6% slide on Friday, as investors continue to question whether the company’s massive AI-linked investments will ever yield meaningful returns.
The company’s free cash flow has turned negative, a situation expected to persist until 2030, Bloomberg data show. Oracle faces tens of billions of dollars in planned spending, primarily on semiconductors, server leases, and the development of AI-focused data centers.
“If Oracle can complete this capital raise successfully, it will start digging itself out of the considerable hole it has found itself in,” said Gil Luria, analyst at DA Davidson & Co.
How Oracle Plans to Raise Funds
Oracle intends to split its fundraising strategy:
Equity-linked and common equity issuance, including mandatory convertible preferred securities and an at-the-market program totaling as much as $20 billion.
Debt issuance, via a single corporate bond offering early in 2026, following last year’s record $18 billion bond sale. Goldman Sachs is set to lead the bond issuance, while Citigroup will manage the equity programs.
Issuing equity sends a clear signal to markets that Oracle is committed to maintaining its investment-grade credit rating, analysts say. However, market appetite for additional investment-grade debt may be limited, given Oracle’s existing obligations and recent spikes in credit default swap prices, which reached levels last seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
OpenAI Contract: A Double-Edged Sword
A centerpiece of Oracle’s AI strategy is its contract with OpenAI, which has committed to spending roughly $300 billion on Oracle cloud servers. While the deal offers a potential long-term revenue stream, it also adds pressure, as OpenAI remains unprofitable and the timeline for meaningful returns is uncertain.
“Oracle is shouldering enormous capital expenditures without a clear roadmap for profit from its AI investments,” said Luria. “The Sunday announcement could be a strategic move to give investors hope before Monday’s open and stem the share-price slide.”
The Stakes Are High
Oracle’s aggressive funding push illustrates the tension between AI ambitions and financial reality. If successful, the raised capital could cement Oracle as a backbone for the AI revolution, powering cloud services for the sector’s heaviest hitters. But the size and scale of the initiative, combined with investor skepticism, makes this one of the most closely watched corporate finance maneuvers in tech history.
As AI continues to reshape the technology landscape, Oracle’s $50 billion gamble may determine whether the company emerges as a dominant cloud provider for the next generation of AI, or becomes a cautionary tale of over-leveraged ambitions.