Oracle AI halo fades, stock price nearly halved from September peak

Goldman Sachs reports that the US financial website investinglive stated that Oracle (ORCL.N) saw its stock price surge to $345 after the September earnings release, briefly making founder Larry Ellison the world’s richest person. Ellison positioned Oracle as “the backend infrastructure provider for the entire AI revolution,” and investors eagerly chased remaining performance obligations (RPO), which became the core of the bullish sentiment. However, two major factors completely shattered this bubble. First is the revaluation of capital expenditures. The company raised its capital expenditure guidance for fiscal year 2026 to $50 billion in its Q2 earnings report, and investors realized that relying on issuing hundreds of billions in debt to build data centers is not a “free lunch,” leading to concerns about its debt risk. Second is delays in data center deliveries. Reports suggest that the data centers Oracle is building for OpenAI may be delayed until 2028. Previously, the bullish case for Oracle was based on speed; if the speed advantage disappears, its high valuation will lose support. Oracle’s stock price fell another 5% today to $177, nearly 50% below its September high.