Summary
Bloomberg Tech interviews Stefan Slowinski, BNP Paribas global head of software research, on Oracle’s latest quarterly results — a set of numbers that both impressed and disappointed investors on the same day. Slowinski maintains an outperform rating while lowering his price target from $290 to $248, citing multiple expansion concerns and the absence of clarity on Oracle’s capital requirements beyond the current fiscal year.
The key figures: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue of $7.4 billion (up 121% year-on-year), a remaining performance obligation backlog of $664 billion, and CapEx of $28.5 billion — above expectations and a meaningful drag on margins, since cloud infrastructure carries lower margins than Oracle’s traditional database business. The quarter also revealed that OpenAI’s Astra model was trained at Oracle’s Abilene, Texas data center, a proof of concept for the infrastructure that underpins Oracle’s $300 billion, four-to-five year revenue commitment from OpenAI. Oracle also disclosed $10 billion in customer prepayments and $26 billion in new backlog additions.
Slowinski addresses Oracle’s $120 billion debt load and negative free cash flow, arguing the company is on a credible path to free cash flow inflection by fiscal 2029 — earlier than most hyperscalers, which are heading deeper into negative territory. He also offers brief commentary on Adobe’s quarterly results, noting that competitive pressure from AI is finally showing up in Adobe’s backlog metrics. A concise financial analysis for investors tracking AI infrastructure capital allocation.
📺 Source: Bloomberg Tech · Published September 11, 2026
🏷️ Format: News Analysis
