Oracle Corporation shares fell 4.7% on Monday, pressured by weakness across the technology sector and fresh reporting that questioned the structure and operational readiness of the Stargate AI data center program.
During the trading session the Nasdaq 100 declined roughly 1%, adding to downward pressure on technology names and contributing to the move in Oracle's stock. The company is one of three partners in Stargate - a joint venture valued at more than $500 billion that was announced in January 2025 alongside OpenAI and SoftBank.
According to the weekend report, Stargate appears to operate with minimal staff and currently does not directly control any data centers. The reporting said that, in the weeks after the Stargate announcement, the three partners disagreed about how the project should be organized and which parties should bear which responsibilities.
Per the report, OpenAI at one point tried to develop data centers on its own but abandoned those plans when lenders were reluctant to finance multibillion-dollar facilities tied to what they viewed as an unproven business model. Rather than proceeding exclusively through the joint venture, OpenAI is said to have structured separate arrangements with SoftBank and with Oracle.
In July, Oracle and OpenAI publicly announced an agreement to build 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity across multiple U.S. locations. The report states the two companies agreed to split economic risk - meaning potential delays or cost overruns would be shared between them.
A separate initiative in Milam County, Texas involves OpenAI and SoftBank Energy. In that project, SoftBank is developing and will own the facility while OpenAI controls the design and holds the long-term lease. Ground was broken on that Texas project in October.
The report also said that OpenAI’s difficulty securing adequate compute capacity weighed on its finances last year. That strain manifested in gross profit margins that were lower than expected, the report said, and attributed the shortfall in part to last-minute purchases of compute resources.
Context and implications
- Oracle’s stock reaction coincided with a broader tech-sector pullback, as measured by the Nasdaq 100.
- The Stargate joint venture is positioned as a major collaboration among Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank, with a headline valuation above $500 billion announced in January 2025.
- According to reporting, project execution is fragmented, with separate deals and at least one ground-breaking in Texas advancing outside the formal joint-venture structure.
Methodological note - The details above are drawn from the recent report about Stargate. Where the report described internal disagreements or lender hesitancy, those descriptions reflect the report's claims.