Oracle defends infrastructure spending spree amid mounting AI demand

The company raised its fiscal year capital investments forecast by $15 billion to $50 billion as its cloud backlog surpassed $500 billion.

Dive Brief:

• Oracle will pour roughly $50 billion into capital investments to increase cloud and AI compute capacity during its current fiscal year, executives said during a Q2 2026 earnings call on Wednesday. In September, Oracle said it anticipated $35 billion in FY2026 capital expenditures.
• The company defended the $15 billion increase with assurances that the investments were tied to committed customer spend. “The vast majority of our capex investments are for revenue-generating equipment that is going into our data centers,” Principal Financial Officer Doug Kehring said. “We are confident that our customer backlog is at a healthy level and that we have the operational and financial strength to execute successfully.”
• Oracle reported a more than fivefold year-over-year spike in remaining performance obligations, with unfulfilled contract value increasing ...