$ORCL Falls Back to $140 as AI Buildout Raises Credit Concerns

$ORCL surged to roughly $245 earlier this year before round-tripping back toward $140.
The growing concern is no longer just valuation. It is the amount of leverage and fixed commitments behind Oracle’s AI infrastructure expansion.
To secure capacity for OpenAI, Oracle reportedly signed “hell-or-high-water” leases that require the company to keep paying rent even if a facility is delayed or power is not yet available.
Banks reportedly provided around $18 billion of financing for one New Mexico data center project.
Some of those loans are now said to be trading below 90 cents on the dollar, implying close to $1.8 billion in paper losses if measured against face value.
Oracle’s credit profile has also come under pressure, with S&P reportedly cutting the company to just one notch above speculative-grade territory.
The broader concern is that the AI infrastructure boom is being financed with enormous amounts of debt before many facilities are fully operational and generating expected returns.
$ORCL is becoming an important stress test for that model.
If financing costs rise further or projects are delayed, the pressure could spread beyond Oracle to lenders, data center developers and other companies funding the AI buildout.