Oracle's High-Stakes Balancing Act: Record Cloud Backlog, Aggressive AI Buildout, and 30,000 Job Cuts Ahead of June 10 Earnings
03.06.2026 - 15:34:12 | boerse-global.de
Oracle is walking a tightrope. The database giant is shedding 18 percent of its global workforce — some 30,000 employees will exit between June 1 and 15 — while simultaneously plowing nearly $50 billion into artificial-intelligence infrastructure this fiscal year. The apparent contradiction is intentional: capital is being redirected from traditional, labor-intensive operations into the AI data centers that now underpin the company's growth story.
The strategy's financial justification is stark. In the third fiscal quarter, total revenue jumped 22 percent to $17.2 billion, powered by a 44 percent surge in cloud revenue to $8.9 billion. Within that, cloud-infrastructure sales hit $4.9 billion (up 84 percent), while the narrower AI-infrastructure segment — the engine of Oracle's most ambitious projects — expanded a staggering 243 percent. That edge has translated into a contract backlog of $553 billion in remaining performance obligations, a 325 percent year-over-year leap largely driven by AI mega-deals.
All eyes now turn to Wednesday, June 10, when Oracle reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results after U.S. markets close. The company's own guidance from March sets a high bar: total revenue growth of 19 to 21 percent, cloud sales expansion of 46 to 50 percent, and adjusted earnings per share between $1.96 and $2.00. The consensus among analysts calls for $1.95 a share and $19.09 billion in revenue, up from $15.90 billion a year earlier.
The capacity buildout is accelerating. CEO Clay Magouyrk confirmed that Oracle brought roughly 400 megawatts of data-center capacity online in the third quarter and expects to exceed that figure in the current period. New sites are taking shape in Wisconsin, Texas, Mexico, and Abilene as part of the broader Stargate project, a large-scale AI infrastructure initiative that demands ever-larger capital commitments.
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Financing those ambitions is a delicate exercise. In February, Oracle outlined a plan to raise up to $50 billion through debt and equity. So far $30 billion has been collected, split between bonds and mandatory convertible preferred shares, but the common-stock component of the program has yet to launch. With projected fiscal 2026 capital expenditure of roughly $50 billion against forecast revenue of $67 billion, margins are squeezed and leverage is rising.
The stock market has given the plan a mixed reception. Shares traded at €207.00 on the latest session, down 1.55 percent, after a volatile stretch that included a 10.4 percent jump on Monday followed by a 1.44 percent dip on Tuesday. Over the past 30 days, the equity still shows a robust 36 percent gain, but a price-to-earnings multiple of 44 leaves little room for disappointment. Scotiabank recently reiterated a "Sector Outperform" rating and lifted its price target, while Wedbush stuck with "Outperform" and a $275 target.
A minor technical headache emerged on June 1, when the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency classified a vulnerability in Oracle WebLogic Server as actively exploited, ordering federal agencies to apply a patch by June 4. The missive briefly weighed on sentiment, though the broader narrative remains centered on the cloud backlog and its conversion into revenue.
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The June 10 report will test whether Oracle can sustain the torrid pace. The cloud demand must continue outstripping available capacity, the AI contracts need to translate into measurable income, and the rising cost of capital cannot be allowed to choke earnings growth. With a record-order book and a workforce being reshaped for the AI era, the stakes for Oracle have never been higher.
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