{"text":[[{"start":8.9,"text":"Oracle’s shares jumped on Thursday after it reported a boost in revenue from its data centre business as it starts to deliver the capacity needed to fulfil bumper AI contracts."}],[{"start":18.1,"text":"The company founded by Larry Ellison posted revenues of $7.4bn in its infrastructure unit last quarter and said year-on-year growth in its wider cloud business would accelerate between 64 per cent and 70 per cent, exceeding analysts’ estimates."}],[{"start":34.56,"text":"The positive forecast suggests Oracle is making progress on its risky and expensive push to transform itself from a business software company into an infrastructure provider to AI labs such as OpenAI, with which it has a $300bn contract. Oracle’s shares climbed about 6 per cent in after-market trading."}],[{"start":54.12,"text":"Clay Magouyrk, the company’s co-chief executive, said the group brought 850 megawatts of data centre capacity online in the quarter and had delivered six of eight buildings for OpenAI at its 800MW Abilene campus in Texas."}],[{"start":67.8,"text":"“We’re pursuing all the different avenues to bring capacity online,” Magouyrk told investors on Thursday. “We remain very excited and very confident in our ability to keep meeting [contractual obligations].”"}],[{"start":79.04,"text":"Total revenue rose 30 per cent to $19.3bn for the three months to the end of August compared to the year before thanks to “continued broad-based demand in Cloud Infrastructure and Cloud Applications”, Oracle said."}],[{"start":91.74,"text":"It signed $30bn worth of new contracts to supply data centre capacity in the quarter, with its pipeline totalling $664bn."}],[{"start":99.84,"text":"Dec Mullarkey, managing director of SLC Management, said: “The improving revenue story for the quarter and the increase in signed contracts seems like enough of a proof statement that they are executing well on the build out.”"}],[{"start":111.96,"text":"Oracle has stretched its financial capacity in an effort to compete with much larger cloud computing rivals, such as Amazon and Google, in the hugely expensive race to build AI infrastructure and serve leading players including OpenAI."}],[{"start":124.54,"text":"Capital expenditures came in at $28.5bn, up from $8.5bn a year before. The investment figure included $11.4bn from customers who had pre-paid for chips used in data centres, but still exceeded Oracle’s revenue for the second quarter in the past year. Net income was $4.7bn."}],[{"start":145.56,"text":"The Austin, Texas-based group previously said it would invest $70bn in the coming fiscal year to finance its data centre construction, up from $55.7bn in the year ended May 31. The company on Thursday said free cash flow for the first quarter was negative $5bn."}],[{"start":163.96,"text":"It said it had completed a previously announced $20bn share sale as part of a $50bn package of measures to help finance data centres, including a large bond offering."}],[{"start":175.08,"text":"S&P downgraded Oracle’s credit in July to one notch above junk status, citing its reliance on a few customers and an uncertain path to profitability in its AI data centre business."}],[{"start":186.48,"text":"The company’s shares have fallen by nearly half since the record level it hit after announcing the OpenAI deal in September 2025. “We have plenty of clients that tell us that [Oracle] is too spicy for them,” said Gabriela Borges, an analyst at Goldman Sachs."}],[{"start":203.16,"text":"Borges, speaking ahead of earnings, said the company had not provided sufficient visibility into the contractual terms of its relationship with OpenAI, and needed to significantly increase cash flow to finance future sites."}],[{"start":215.2,"text":"Oracle has faced setbacks with multiple large data centre projects due to permitting delays and local opposition. It has also been impacted by regulators imposing stricter requirements on its sites because of its weakening creditworthiness."}],[{"start":231.08,"text":"Magouyrk said the company’s data centre construction was well under way at multiple sites but it had been impacted by power and permitting constraints. He maintained Oracle had multiple “backup options”."}],[{"start":241.88,"text":"The company has sought to mitigate investors’ concerns by turning to customers to help finance chips and has undergone significant lay-offs, shedding tens of thousands of roles in a move to reduce costs and free up cash for AI investments."}],[{"start":259.32,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789098761_6189.mp3"}