Oracle plans to raise billions of dollars in debt, equity this year: Will it gain investors interest?

Oracle announced on Sunday, February 1, 2026, that it expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to build additional capacity for its cloud infrastructure.

The US-based multinational technology corporation, chaired by billionaire Larry Ellison, said it plans to achieve its funding objectives using a combination of debt and equity financing.

"Oracle is raising money in order to ‌build additional capacity to meet the contracted demand from our largest Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers, including AMD, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, TikTok, xAI, and others," the company said ‍in a statement.

Key motives behind Oracle’s new plan:

Oracle has revealed it needs to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in cash to fund expansion of its cloud infrastructure, and its plan to raise that money

Big Red firm issued an announcement that says Oracle “expects” to raise $45 to $50 billion of gross cash proceeds during the 2026 calendar year alone, using “a balanced combination of debt and equity financing.”

How it will impact investors:

Oracle plans to get its hands on the billions it needs with three tactics.

Some investors weren’t entirely happy last year when Oracle used bonds to raise $18 billion to fund cloud builds, arguing that the debt might create risk.

Investors are also likely aware that Oracle’s cloudy competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon—all of whom win $250 billion-plus of annual revenue, compared to Oracle’s $57 billion—are spending a lot more than Big Red on data centers infrastructure.

Expectations:

Oracle has told markets it has booked $455 billion of cloudy services it is yet to deliver and is clearly betting that its expanded cloud will generate so much revenue that bondholders will earn a nice return, while shareholders need not fear the issuance of new equity will dilute value … or dilute it more, given that the database giant’s shares peaked at over $328 in September 2025 but last week went from almost $185 to around $164.

The announcement coincides with persistent fears about whether massive artificial intelligence-linked investments by tech companies such as Oracle will pay off.

Overview:

The company’s shares have fallen around 50% from their record price on September 10, 2025, wiping out roughly $460 billion in market value.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, developing AI data centers has pushed Oracle’s free cash flow negative, where it is expected to stay until 2030.

The company is on the hook for tens of billions of dollars in spending in the coming years, largely on semiconductors and leases.

“If Oracle can complete the raise successfully, it will start digging itself out of the considerable hole it has found itself in,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson & Co.

The company plans to raise half of the funds via equity-linked and common equity issuances, including mandatory convertible preferred securities, and through an at-the-market equity program of as much as $20 billion.

Issuing equity would help send a message to the market that Oracle is serious about maintaining its investment-grade debt rating, wrote John DiFucci, an analyst at Guggenheim, in a January note.

A key part of Oracle’s cloud investment is its contract with OpenAI, which has committed to spending about $300 billion to rent servers from Oracle.

OpenAI is not profitable, adding to worries about the financial strains from huge capital expenditures without a clear timeline for meaningful returns.