Oracle Corp shares fell 3% on September 15, marking six consecutive days of losses as the stock dropped to the day's low of $140.41 on the New York Stock Exchange. The latest decline follows a 3.7% drop that began the week after co-founder Larry Ellison's decision to scrap his plan to sell $7.5 billion worth of shares. According to Livemint, the shares have been under pressure since last week, even as the company's first-quarter earnings beat Wall Street estimates. The stock has struggled to sustain rallies, putting it on track to post its first annual decline in three years, with shares down 26% so far in 2026 and widening the gap from their record high to nearly 58%.
Larry Ellison has cancelled his plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares worth approximately $7.5 billion at current prices, according to a company statement released on Saturday. The statement clarified that 'No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,' as reported by The Financial Express. The trading plan, known as a 10b5-1 Plan, was originally adopted on June 22, 2026 and was set to expire on October 24, 2026. Ellison controls more than 40% of Oracle, according to the latest reports, and if he had sold all 50 million shares covered by the plan, he would still hold about 1.1 billion shares in the company he co-founded in 1977. The planned sale represented roughly 6-7% of his total holdings, assuming current price levels around $150 per share, and would have effectively compressed 15 years of selling activity into one concentrated move.
Oracle has begun another round of global layoffs as the company looks to reduce costs while shifting its focus more towards building artificial intelligence infrastructure. According to Business Insider, the latest layoffs were expected to begin on Monday, though the report did not specify how many employees were affected. This comes after the company reported $28.5 billion in capital expenditure, mostly on data centre equipment, in the three months ended August 31. The workforce reduction has already had a significant impact, with the company's workforce declining by about 21,000 employees, or 13%, during fiscal 2026, as reported in its latest filing. The ongoing job cuts are part of Oracle's '2026 Restructuring Plan,' with the cost now estimated at about $2.8 billion, largely comprising severance payments to employees. Oracle has already accrued about $2.1 billion in costs tied to the plan, with the remaining $700 million reflecting additional actions expected through the end of the plan.
Oracle's aggressive push into artificial intelligence infrastructure is putting pressure on the company's finances even as its cloud business accelerates. As reported by Livemint, Oracle has become a major AI infrastructure provider, using its established software business to fund a costly expansion of cloud capacity for customers such as OpenAI. The investment has increased pressure on the company's finances, with Oracle's restructuring costs now estimated at about $2.8 billion, largely due to severance payments from massive job cuts. In a briefing with reporters, Chief Financial Officer Hilary Maxson reaffirmed the company's $70 billion forecast for capital expenditure in the year ending May 2027, with an additional $20 billion to $25 billion expected to be spent on prepayments for some components. Despite these challenges, Oracle's cloud infrastructure revenue grew 121% year-over-year, though the company's heavy debt burden and stock decline of approximately 23% this year have raised investor concerns about the sustainability of its massive data center spending.
Oracle has emerged as a major infrastructure partner for OpenAI, with the company agreeing in September to provide about $300 billion in capacity to the AI company. This partnership is part of Oracle's push to build data centres and benefit from the rapid growth in AI demand. The decision to cancel Ellison's share sale plan comes as Oracle faces growing investor concerns over its heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Ellison was also closely associated with the launch of Stargate, the AI infrastructure project unveiled in early 2025 by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, which was initially valued at $500 billion. However, Stargate has since evolved into a series of bilateral deals, with Oracle's planned expansion for OpenAI facing permitting and regulatory hurdles, creating further challenges as the company works to build the infrastructure required to meet AI demand.
