Industry analysts often joke that Oracle’s calculator can only add numbers, a comforting thought for stakeholders. Yesterday, Oracle’s financial outlook drew widespread praise, driving their stock price up by 27%, while CTO and co-founder Larry Ellison was on course to surpass Elon Musk as the world’s wealthiest individual. However, discrepancies remain.

In the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year, Oracle reported markedly high anticipated earnings through remaining performance obligations (RPOs), which include signed agreements yet to be paid. Oracle’s audacious claim of $455 billion set many analysts abuzz, hailing the scale as monumental.

CEO Safra Catz noted an increase of nearly 360% year-on-year, uplifting their cloud infrastructure forecast significantly. According to Catz, contracts with AI giants such as OpenAI, Meta, and Nvidia are behind these numbers.

The pivot to cloud infrastructure marks a departure from Oracle’s traditional domain, yet figures depict a 55% growth in this sector over the past year. Ellison further highlighted Oracle’s role in the AI transformation, declaring, “Several leading AI firms have partnered with us for developing large-scale GPU-centric datacenters for AI model training.”

Despite Ellison’s optimistic predictions about AI revolutionizing various industries, critical questions emerge. As companies like OpenAI project substantial financial losses, Oracle’s long-term RPO strategy’s sustainability remains uncertain. Industry observers like Gartner’s John-David Lovelock predict a winnowing of AI providers, speculating that only a few will thrive.

Ultimately, the viability of Oracle’s forecasts will depend on whether current AI ventures can yield financial success, potentially altering the tech landscape significantly.