ORCL Slides After Worst Week In Nearly 2 Months — But Larry Ellison Canceling His Stock Sale Is Keeping Retail Bullish

• Rising capex and higher restructuring costs are fueling concerns about Oracle’s aggressive AI infrastructure buildout.
• OpenAI’s delayed IPO and calls for slower frontier-AI development are seen as pressuring Oracle's outlook.
• Short interest has nearly doubled this year, even as ORCL shares climbed over the past two months.

Oracle Corp.’s shares dipped about 2% in overnight trading late Sunday amid a broader selloff in AI-linked stocks after Anthropic and OpenAI called for the industry to pace the development of frontier AI technology. The pressure was compounded by key customer OpenAI confirming it is delaying its planned initial public offering until next year.

The developments outweighed optimism from Oracle co-founder and Chairman Larry Ellison canceling a planned stock sale of up to $7.5 billion, putting further pressure on the shares after they posted their sharpest weekly decline in nearly two months.

Ellison canceled a plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares under a trading plan that was originally set to run from June through October 2026. “No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,” the company said in a statement Saturday, a move that was seen as a sign of Ellison’s confidence in Oracle’s business and future prospects.

ORCL Stock: What’s Adding To The Pressure?

Oracle’s restructuring costs are also set to rise as the company works to rein in expenses amid heavy investment in cloud and AI infrastructure. The company is expected to spend about $2.8 billion on its 2026 restructuring plan, roughly $700 million more than previously projected, with much of the increase tied to employee severance costs, according to an exchange filing on Friday.

Oracle is also facing uncertainty around one of its most important AI customers after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company will not go public in 2026. Altman told Fortune that an IPO now would come at an “ill-advised moment,” citing the need to focus on AI safety and alignment. 

Meanwhile, the AI industry’s biggest players are calling for a slower pace of frontier-model development. Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged AI companies to “slow down” and proposed greater third-party safety oversight, while OpenAI’s Altman and other industry leaders have backed efforts to address mounting safety concerns. 

The push for a more measured approach would potentially weigh on businesses such as Oracle that have benefited heavily from surging demand for AI computing capacity.

ORCL Stock Move

ORCL stock dropped about 5.4% last week despite a strong earnings report, as investors remain focused on the cost and financing risks of its aggressive AI infrastructure buildout rather than near-term revenue growth.

Oracle’s surging capex, negative free cash flow, and reliance on debt and equity financing have kept pressure on the stock, while the latest concerns around an AI-development slowdown and OpenAI’s delayed IPO have further clouded sentiment toward Oracle.

Notably, even as ORCL shares have moved higher over the past two months, short interest has risen alongside them. The percentage of shares sold short has increased from 0.9% at the start of the year to 1.7% as of Friday, according to Koyfin data.

“Larry's going to jam up the shorts but good with that cancellation of his Oracle sell plan. He's one canny fellow,” CNBC analyst Jim Cramer said in an X post.

ORCL Retail View

ORCL was among the top trending stocks on Stocktwits at the time of writing, with traders sounding particularly upbeat on Ellison’s plan to cancel his stock sale.

“$ORCL Even Ellison has realized this has major upside!” remarked a trader, while another said they expect “a ton of FOMO this coming week and likely a multi month run. We are at the bottom if not extremely close.”

“$ORCL anyone selling here is a special kind of stupid,” said a third trader.

Year to date, ORCL shares remain 22.2% lower.

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