Oracle tumbles after Bloomberg report that it’s delaying some data centers for OpenAI to 2028 from 2027
Getting a multi-hundred-billion-dollar backlog for cloud computing revenues from data center projects is easy. Building them is hard.
Oracle extended declines to as much as -6.5% on the day on the heels of a Bloomberg report that the cloud giant has pushed back the completion dates for some of the data centers it’s building for OpenAI to 2028 from 2027, citing people familiar with the work.
This postponement is being attributed to labor and material shortages.
Oracle has been spending more on capex than Wall Street had anticipated, leading to higher-than-expected cash burn. Management boosted its full-year capital spending plans by $15 billion after reporting Q2 results earlier this week.
And yet, it still doesn’t appear to be spending enough to be able to deliver these massive projects on schedule.
Oracle’s cloud infrastructure sales came in short of estimates in its fiscal 2026 Q2, a signal that markets already had reason to doubt its ability to quickly turn its humungous RPO (that is, remaining purchase obligations) into revenues.
Traders also seem to be of the mind that delays to data center completions are going to limit sales for what goes into them.
Some of the bigger losers since the Bloomberg headline hit the wires include:
Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, the latter of which struck a deal to deploy 50,000 of its AI chips in Oracle data centers.
AI REITs like Equinix andDigital Realty.
Server company Dell as well as other AI-geared stocks likeConstellation Energy, Arista Networks, Corning, Generac Holdings, Quanta Services, Vistra, and Eaton Corp.