AUSTIN, Texas, March 10, 2026, 08:58 CDT
Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) heads into third-quarter results later on Tuesday under pressure to show that rising demand for its AI cloud can outrun the cost of building the data centers behind it. The company said it will release results after the market close and hold a conference call at 4 p.m. Central Time. 1
The timing matters because Oracle’s push to add capacity for OpenAI and other large customers has forced it into one of the sector’s biggest funding plans. Oracle said in February it expected to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to expand Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and its shares were down about 1.4% in early U.S. trading on Tuesday. 2
Analysts expect revenue of about $16.9 billion and adjusted earnings of about $1.70 a share. Oracle had previously guided to revenue growth of 19% to 21% in dollar terms and adjusted EPS of $1.70 to $1.74. 3
Oracle’s last report helps explain why. In December, cloud revenue rose 34% and cloud infrastructure revenue jumped 68%; Doug Kehring said signed backlog, or remaining performance obligations — business not yet recognized as revenue — was “highlighted by new commitments from Meta, NVIDIA, and others,” while CEO Clay Magouyrk said Oracle was more than halfway through building 72 multicloud data centers inside Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds. 4
That mix of fast growth and heavy spending is what investors want explained now. Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow wrote that Oracle’s fiscal third quarter should show “a meaningful AI-driven revenue acceleration,” but said the ramp “will likely also pressure margins from upfront costs/timing.” 5
Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz argued the stock’s slide has already reset expectations. “The selloff in the shares has brought investor expectations to levels that better reflect the uncertainty and risks of Oracle’s transition to a capital-intensive business,” he wrote. 6
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill struck a firmer tone, saying he believed the market may be overlooking Oracle’s “upside potential and growth catalysts.” Tuesday’s report may show whether that argument can survive another quarter of cash-hungry expansion. 7
Still, the risk case is plain. Bloomberg News reported last week that Oracle was planning thousands of job cuts as data-center costs rise. Separately, Reuters reported that a planned expansion at a flagship Texas site had been dropped after talks dragged over financing and OpenAI’s changing needs, though broader buildouts remain on track. 8
One sign of how much is riding on the call: options pricing cited by Investopedia suggests traders are braced for a move of about 10% either way after the report. 9
