Oracle’s $248 billion AI bet just rocked Wall Street — and it’s off the balance sheet

CreditSights analysts have pointed to a potentially significant change at Oracle ORCLThe Company’s risk profile following the Company’s recent regulatory filing, which disclosed a far greater number of future lease obligations than previously disclosed. In its newly released 10-Q, Oracle outlined $248 billion in lease payment obligations, largely tied to data center and cloud capacity, scheduled to begin by fiscal 2028 and not reflected on the balance sheet. CreditSights’ Jordan Chalfin and Michael Pugh called the disclosure a bombshell, noting that the figure was nearly $150 billion higher than investors had inferred from previous earnings filings, a development that could lead to greater scrutiny of Oracle’s AI infrastructure strategy.

Analysts point out that the scale of these commitments underscores how capital-intensive Oracle’s late-stage push into AI and cloud infrastructure has become as it seeks to compete with Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Management expects…