Oracle Shares Crash 14% as Massive AI Infrastructure Spending Plan Triggers Market Selloff

What Happened

Oracle experienced a dramatic stock decline on Thursday, plunging from $225 to $194 per share—a 14% drop that erased approximately $105 billion in market capitalization. The sharp selloff came immediately after the tech giant announced a substantial revision to its capital expenditure forecasts for fiscal year 2026.

The $15 Billion Capex Bombshell

In a significant departure from its September projections, Oracle revealed that fiscal 2026 capex will be $15 billion higher than previously anticipated. This massive increase reflects the company’s aggressive expansion of cloud infrastructure, predominantly driven by commitments to support OpenAI’s computational requirements and data center operations.

The infrastructure build-out underscores Oracle’s strategic bet on artificial intelligence, positioning itself as a key cloud partner for one of the world’s most advanced AI organizations. However, the scale of spending caught markets off guard.

Market Reaction: Concerns Over ROI Timeline

Investors responded to Oracle’s announcement with considerable alarm, sending shares into free fall. The market’s negative reaction reflects deeper anxiety about whether such enormous AI infrastructure investments will translate into meaningful near-term revenue growth and profitability.

The $105 billion market value wipeout suggests that traders are questioning the immediate return on investment for these capital-intensive projects, even as the company emphasizes its strategic importance in the evolving AI landscape.