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Fast cloud growth and a large backlog have raised the bar for Oracle’s next report. Its reliance on debt and equity makes the spending plan as important as the revenue line.
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Oracle’s next earnings report will test whether its AI-cloud acceleration can justify an increasingly capital-intensive financing model. In fiscal 2026, cloud-infrastructure revenue reached $5.8 billion, up 93%, while free cash flow fell to negative $23.7 billion after infrastructure investment. Oracle raised $43 billion in debt and $5 billion in equity and plans roughly $40 billion more in fiscal 2027.
Remaining performance obligations rose $85 billion sequentially to $638 billion; $75 billion involved prepaid GPUs or customer-supplied hardware.
Oracle’s $20 billion at-the-market equity issuance is part of roughly $40 billion planned debt-and-equity financing in fiscal 2027.
Total cloud revenue increased 47% to $9.9 billion in fiscal 2026’s fourth quarter.
Oracle reports earnings next week as its role in the AI infrastructure buildout faces closer market scrutiny. Questions around OpenAI’s large infrastructure commitments to Oracle add to a report already shaped by rapid cloud growth and heavier reliance on external financing than some peers.
Expectations are high. Analysts expect roughly 28% constant-currency revenue growth, up from 11% a year earlier. Oracle has guided for total revenue growth of 27% to 29%, while its non-GAAP earnings-per-share guidance calls for 16% to 19% growth in constant currency.
Cloud infrastructure is the center of Oracle’s AI case. In its fiscal 2026 fourth quarter, reported in June, Oracle posted $5.8 billion in cloud-infrastructure revenue, up 93% from a year earlier. Total cloud revenue rose 47% to $9.9 billion.
Oracle said remaining performance obligations ended that quarter at $638 billion, up $85 billion sequentially. It said most of the increase across the third and fourth quarters came from large AI contracts in which customers prepaid for GPUs or supplied them; those prepaid and customer-supplied hardware portions totaled $75 billion.
Oracle generated $32 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2026, but free cash flow was negative $23.7 billion as it invested in cloud infrastructure. The company raised $43 billion in debt and $5 billion in equity during the year. It expects to raise about $40 billion through debt and equity in fiscal 2027, including a previously announced $20 billion at-the-market equity issuance.
CNBC presents that financial and operating leverage as attractive to investors bullish on an AI boom, while noting Oracle faces formidable competitors. Oracle’s risk disclosures also identify securing and managing data-center capacity and sourcing components such as GPUs as factors that could affect results. Options markets imply a share-price move of more than 10% by the end of the following week, in line with Oracle’s average move over the prior two years.
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