By Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor
Publication Date: 2025-11-24 17:15:00
FFor a brief moment on September 10, Larry Ellison became the richest man in the world. When Oracle’s 81-year-old founder announced a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, the company’s shares rose 36 percent. Ellison, who owns 41 percent of Silicon Valley Grande, which he founded in 1977, was worth nearly $400 billion.
It wasn’t meant to last. Over the past two months, Oracle’s value has fallen. In doing so, it has become an indicator of investor nervousness about an AI bubble and tells a story of debt, demand and engagement in OpenAI that is a reflection of the problems in the industry.
As a traditional software company, Oracle came late to the AI infrastructure party, but now provides the cloud and data central backbone that companies use to run their operations, store data and build AI applications. Capital spending could top $300 billion by 2030, according to analysts at Bank of America.
According to the…, up to 80 percent of the financing for the development of data centers relies on debt.
