Oracle is facing an unprecedented financial restructuring, planning to lay off as many as 30,000 employees to cope with a massive debt of over $124 billion. This decision stems from the "Stargate" project led by its founder, Larry Ellison—an AI data center project in collaboration with OpenAI, with a total investment of $300 billion, requiring the purchase of approximately 3 million GPUs and a capital expenditure of up to $156 billion. To support this unprecedented construction, Oracle's fiscal year 2026 capital expenditure budget has been raised from $35 billion to $50 billion, and it plans to raise an additional $45 billion to $50 billion through debt and equity financing.
Affected by this, Oracle's stock price has fallen sharply from a high of $346 in September 2025 to around $145, with a market value evaporation of over $463 billion. In the past ten fiscal quarters, the company has failed to meet Wall Street's revenue expectations eight times, its credit rating remains at Baa2, just one step away from speculative grade, and its debt default swap costs have climbed to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
While financial pressures are intensifying, Oracle's blockchain and asset tokenization platform, originally scheduled for launch in 2026, also faces uncertainty. The platform is based on Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Besu, combined with Oracle AI Database 26ai to achieve intelligent data governance, aiming to provide global financial institutions with dual-mode infrastructure supporting permissioned and public chains. Although the company's senior vice president once emphasized that "major global banks rely on Oracle to carry their core business," there are still significant questions as to whether such a large-scale organizational streamlining can guarantee the implementation of the technology.
In addition, Oracle is considering selling Cerner, a healthcare software subsidiary acquired four years ago for $28.3 billion, to further alleviate cash flow pressures. Market analysis points out that there may be over-investment risks in the current AI infrastructure field, and the next two years may usher in a period of adjustment. As the earnings season enters a critical juncture, Oracle's performance in the third quarter of this fiscal year will be an important indicator of its strategic resilience.