#Oracle AI Growth Surges as Cash Burn Weighs on Shares
Oracle's fiscal first quarter, reported September 10, delivered numbers most software companies only dream about. Total revenue climbed 30% to $19.3 billion, topping Wall Street's forecast, while non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.92 beat the roughly $1.74 analysts expected by about 10%. Cloud revenue, combining infrastructure and applications, jumped 62% to $11.6 billion.
The standout was Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the business renting out computing power for AI training and inference. IaaS revenue rocketed 121% to $7.4 billion, and the company said it booked more than $30 billion of additional AI cloud contracts during the quarter alone. Its backlog of signed but unfulfilled work, known as remaining performance obligations, reached $664 billion, up $209 billion from a year earlier.
#Growth Keeps Accelerating
The chart above shows why Oracle's infrastructure story keeps grabbing attention. Cloud infrastructure growth has climbed steadily over the past three quarters, from 84% to 93% to 121%, even as the revenue base gets larger. That kind of acceleration at scale is rare, and it is why bulls argue Oracle deserves a premium rather than the discount it currently trades at. Management also nudged full year guidance higher, now targeting at least $90 billion in total revenue for fiscal 2027 and non-GAAP earnings per share of $8.10.
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#Why Investors Sold The Rally
Despite all that, the stock told a different story. Shares gapped up as much as 7.5% at the open, touched $166, then reversed and closed at $150.28, down 1.7% for the day, on volume roughly 2.5 times the recent average. The Nasdaq gained about 1% that same session, so this reversal was about Oracle specifically, not the broader market.
The explanation sits in the cash flow statement. Operating cash flow hit a record $23 billion, up 184%, but free cash flow was still negative $5 billion for the quarter as Oracle keeps pouring money into data centers. That follows a fiscal 2026 in which the company burned through roughly $23.7 billion in free cash flow. S&P subsequently cut Oracle’s credit rating to BBB-, one notch above junk, citing rising AI infrastructure risk, weaker expected cash flow and high customer concentration. OpenAI accounts for roughly half of Oracle’s huge backlog.
To keep funding the buildout, Oracle completed a $20 billion stock sale during the quarter, on top of tens of billions raised in debt over the past year. That dilution, plus the sheer scale of ongoing spending, is what investors are weighing against the growth numbers.
The tension is straightforward. Oracle is proving it can win enormous AI infrastructure contracts. Whether it can convert that backlog into real free cash flow without piling on more debt or diluting shareholders further is still unproven. Watch capital spending and free cash flow over the next two quarters for the real answer.