In partnership with the U.S. government, Oracle has become TikTok’s trusted security guardian, safeguarding the platform’s American operations. This shift not only gave Oracle political influence in Washington but also highlighted how deeply embedded the company is in one of the most sensitive tech battles of our time—data security and national trust.
The spotlight, however, wasn’t only on TikTok. On one historic day, Larry Ellison’s fortune soared by $89 billion—the single largest one-day wealth surge ever recorded on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. For several hours, the Oracle co-founder even surpassed Elon Musk to become the richest man on Earth. The trigger? One of the most stunning financial performances in enterprise technology’s history.
From Legacy Software to Unthinkable Growth
On September 9th, CEO Safra Catz unveiled results that stunned Wall Street. Oracle revealed $455 billion in future contracted revenue—nearly quadruple last year’s figures, far above analyst expectations of $150 billion. Even more striking, its infrastructure revenue is set to grow 77% this fiscal year, reaching $18 billion.
Catz, long admired for her sharp financial discipline and no-nonsense leadership, demonstrated once again why she is regarded as one of the most effective strategists in enterprise technology. This wasn’t just an earnings win. It was a reinvention—reshaping how investors view a decades-old software giant.
The Evolution of Oracle: From CIA Project to Enterprise Backbone
Founded in 1977 by Larry Ellison, Oracle grew from a government database project into a company that quietly powered the world’s most critical systems. By the 2010s, Oracle’s technology formed the backbone of banks, governments, and Fortune 500 corporations—running everything from trillions in financial transactions to citizen records and global supply chains.
Yet between 2010 and 2016, as Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft Azure rocketed ahead, Oracle looked like a relic. Some even compared it to IBM—an industry titan sliding into irrelevance. Ellison didn’t help matters by famously mocking cloud computing. But his criticism wasn’t of the concept—it was of competitors’ execution.
Betting on a Different Cloud
Under Catz’s leadership, Oracle introduced Generation 2 Cloud Infrastructure in 2016. Unlike rivals, who built flexible but latency-prone virtualized clouds, Oracle engineered a platform designed for mission-critical, high-performance workloads—the very foundation AI would later demand.
By using bare metal servers, RDMA networking, and a non-oversubscribed architecture, Oracle ensured lightning-fast, predictable performance. Critics once called it “over-engineered.” But when ChatGPT launched in 2022 and global demand for GPU-powered AI training exploded, Oracle’s design suddenly looked visionary.
Today, Oracle offers AI compute at 57% lower cost than AWS, 75% cheaper than Azure, and 169% less than Google Cloud. It also delivers significantly higher networking bandwidth, enabling faster and cheaper AI training at scale.
Partnerships That Cement Oracle’s Role
Oracle’s ecosystem is reinforced by heavyweight partnerships. Deals with NVIDIA bring cutting-edge GPUs into its infrastructure, while collaborations with Microsoft and Amazon even embed Oracle hardware within their data centers.
Most ambitious of all is Project Stargate—a $500 billion venture with OpenAI and SoftBank to build next-generation AI supercenters across the U.S. With 2 million NVIDIA chips worth $40 billion committed, Oracle is the backbone of AI’s future infrastructure.
Oracle in Social Media and AI Integration
Beyond cloud and AI, Oracle is the unseen force powering TikTok’s U.S. operations, securing American user data amid national security debates. What few realize is that Oracle’s role has placed it at the center of one of the decade’s most heated geopolitical discussions.
At the same time, Oracle is embedding AI directly into its crown jewel—its database systems. With Oracle Database 23AI, companies no longer need to shift sensitive data into risky new environments. Instead, Oracle brings AI capabilities directly to where data already lives, minimizing compliance risks while unlocking new possibilities.
The Numbers Behind the Transformation
Oracle’s momentum is undeniable:
- Q4 2024: Infrastructure revenue up 52% YoY, beating Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS.
- Remaining obligations: $138 billion, projected to double by 2026.
- Cloud growth forecast: +24% in 2025, +40% in 2026.
- CapEx: Over $25 billion by 2026 to expand global data centers, including multi-billion-dollar projects in Malaysia, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Ellison insists Oracle is building more data centers than all its competitors combined.
Risks and the Road Ahead
Like all AI stocks, Oracle faces valuation concerns. Economic downturns or shifting investor sentiment could affect its trajectory. Yet the stock has nearly tripled from $80 in 2021 to $230 in 2025, with long-term projections valuing Oracle as high as $1.67 trillion by 2029.
The Big Picture
Oracle is no longer the “Kodak of enterprise software.” It has emerged as a cornerstone of the AI revolution, uniquely positioned with the architecture, partnerships, and data to lead. From securing TikTok to fueling AI superclusters, Oracle has transformed from a steady, behind-the-scenes database provider into a central force in the new age of computing.
In short, Oracle isn’t following the AI wave—it’s helping to shape it.
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