Cloud business investment cannot stop! Oracle will raise $50 billion this year.

Oracle plans to raise up to $50 billion through bonds and equity financing in 2026 to expand its cloud infrastructure to meet the needs of major clients. This aggressive financing move comes at a time when the veteran software company faces intense market skepticism about its debt burden and heavy-asset transformation strategy.

On February 2, according to Bloomberg, Oracle stated in a February 1 release that the fundraising is for “building additional capacity to fulfill contractual demands from our largest Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers,” including AMD, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok, and xAI. The company plans to raise about half of the funds through equity-linked instruments and common stock offerings, including mandatory convertible preferred securities and a market equity program of up to $20 billion.

Analysts note that this plan highlights Oracle’s aggressive stance in the AI cloud service race but also intensifies investor concerns about its financial sustainability. According to Bloomberg data, Oracle currently carries about $95 billion in outstanding debt, making it one of the largest corporate bond issuers outside the financial sector.

According to a previous Wallstreetcn article, well-known short seller and "The Big Short" prototype Michael Burry recently disclosed a short position against Oracle, criticizing its “unnecessary heavy-asset expansion” and fragile financial structure, calling it a “pure AI bubble vehicle.”

Details of the $50 Billion Financing Plan

According to media reports, Oracle plans to use diversified financing channels to complete this massive fundraising.

The company will raise about $22.5 to $25 billion through equity-linked instruments and common stock issuance, specifically including mandatory convertible preferred securities and a market equity program of up to $20 billion (at-the-market equity program).

The remaining funds will be raised through the bond market. Oracle says it plans a single bond offering in early 2026, totaling about $22.5 to $25 billion, which will further increase its already massive debt load.

In its statement, the company emphasized that these funds are dedicated to expanding cloud infrastructure capacity to fulfill contracts signed with major clients.

The client list cited by Oracle covers key players in the AI industry chain, from chipmakers AMD and Nvidia, to AI application developers OpenAI and xAI, as well as major internet platforms Meta and TikTok.

Short Seller Previously Criticized “Dislikes Its Positioning and Financing”

Oracle’s aggressive financing plan comes against the backdrop of widespread concerns about its debt levels. According to Bloomberg, the company currently has about $95 billion in outstanding debt, making it one of the largest corporate bond issuers in Bloomberg’s high-grade index outside the financial sector.

Reports say this debt level reflects Oracle’s aggressive investment strategy in recent years as it shifts from a traditional database software vendor to a cloud infrastructure provider. To compete with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, the company has spent tens of billions of dollars purchasing Nvidia chips and building data centers, switching from a “light-asset” model to a “heavy-asset” one.

At the same time, this transformation has led to continuously rising capital expenditure. Market doubts about the structure of certain cloud transactions and swelling debt are eroding investor confidence.

According to a previous Wallstreetcn article, Michael Burry believes Oracle is undertaking unnecessary heavy-asset expansion, attempting to rival cloud giants through expensive data center construction.

The core of Burry’s short logic is that Oracle lacks the safety net of other tech giants and is a fragile “pure AI bubble vehicle.” He notes that companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta have strong core business moats, and could survive even if AI investments fail.

By contrast, Oracle’s current share price support logic is highly dependent on the single narrative of “surging AI cloud service demand.” Burry argues that Oracle is undergoing high-risk transformation under heavy debt, and if AI demand falls short of expectations, its margin for error is extremely small.

He says giants like Microsoft and Google have the capacity to control spending and absorb losses from excess capacity over time, but Oracle faces far greater financial structural vulnerabilities.

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