Oracle’s stock falls amid resurfacing AI spending concerns

Oracle just had its worst day in a year and a half. Shares of the enterprise software giant tumbled approximately 12% on June 11, wiping out roughly $72 billion in market capitalization in a single session. The culprit: a spending plan so aggressive it made even the most AI-bullish investors flinch. The sell-off was triggered by Oracle’s forecast of around $70 billion in net capital expenditures for fiscal 2026, almost entirely directed at building out AI data-center infrastructure. The company plans to fund a significant chunk of it by raising an additional $40 billion through debt and equity. The free cash flow problem Oracle’s free-cash-flow deficit ballooned to $23.7 billion in fiscal 2026. The year before, that same deficit sat at just $394 million. The company is essentially betting that massive upfront spending on AI infrastructure will pay dividends down the road, anchored by deals like its landmark $300 billion, five-year cloud-computing contract with OpenAI set to kick in starting 2027. It’s one of the largest technology contracts in history. Oracle’s stock reached an all-time high of approximately $345 back in September 2025. The company’s market cap, which once approach...