This bold Oracle move could be the beginning of something big

Oracle  (ORCL)  took a daring step and shook up its boardroom, and it could be the start of yet another rally to build on an already impressive run for 2025, which, as I write this, stands at 85%. 

Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia are now co-CEOs, succeeding longtime leader Safra Catz, who will become executive vice chair — a major shake-up in a year already shaping up to be a banner one for Oracle.

It’s a unique leadership structure that suggests much more than succession: a bet that two executives with significant technical expertise can drive Oracle’s next chapter of AI and cloud development. 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts,” Winston Churchill once famously said. 

Oracle is making a comeback this year, after the investor class wrote it off as a tech enterprise well past its prime. The comeback is down, thanks to AI interest in its cloud products and some very smart deals, capturing investor attention. 

Now comes the tough part. How to continue the momentum? The answer, much like so many other things, is the makeup of the boardroom. 

Magouyrk was the architect of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which he built from the ground up to become a significant challenger. His team has pushed Oracle into AI’s infrastructure layer, enabling some of the industry’s heaviest training workloads. 

Sicilia, on the other hand, is in charge of Oracle’s vertical applications, which incorporate artificial intelligence into health care, utilities, and other industries.

A few years ago, Clay and Mike committed Oracle’s Infrastructure and Applications businesses to AI — it’s paying off, said Ellison. They are both proven leaders… Oracle’s future is bright.

The timing is no coincidence. Oracle is apparently pursuing significant cloud partnerships with OpenAI and Meta  (META) , and the company’s stock has increased by more than 80% this year as AI demand grows. 

Apart from the blockbuster deals, Oracle is also creating enormous data centers to accommodate AI workloads, with the goal of becoming a key component of the global training stack.

But investors have seen risky ventures before. A co-CEO structure might get chaotic. Execution risk is significant, particularly when expectations are this high. 

Can Oracle provide the scalability, speed, and stability that AI requires?

This isn’t simply a leadership change. It might be Oracle’s most significant move since Larry Ellison stepped down.

Why Oracle’s co-CEO structure matters now more than ever

Oracle’s move to separate the CEO post is not only symbolic; it is purposeful, meant at retaining momentum this year. 

The firm is approaching a tipping point as demand for generative AI reshapes how software is produced, marketed, and expanded, causing a significant change in the interest the average retail investor has vis-à-vis the markets.

The backbone of Oracle’s operations now rests with Clay Magouyrk. 

Under his leadership, OCI has grown from a laughingstock to a powerhouse. Therefore he is considered one of the main architects of the recent surge in the company’s stock. 

Related: New Google AI TV tool could change how Netflix is found, watched

OCI today powers some of the industry’s most sophisticated AI workloads, such as enormous training clusters for language models and inference engines across industries. It is the component of Oracle that communicates with Nvidia, OpenAI, governments, and hyperscalers alike.

In contrast, Mike Sicilia owns the interface. His team isn’t only creating software; it’s also developing adaptive, AI-powered systems for sectors that need specialized, compliant, highly integrated solutions. 

From Oracle Health to utilities to banking, Sicilia’s apps transform raw infrastructure into tools that business executives can use. No surprises why Oracle managed to increase revenue by 12% in its most recent results. 

Together, they constitute a “full stack” approach to AI, with data centers on one end and domain-specific software on the other. Oracle believes that by uniting both levels under co-CEOs who already communicate, it would be able to move quicker and close larger agreements than more-siloed competitors.

The concern is whether this organization can remain cohesive. A fractured vision at the top may result in turf battles, mismatched roadmaps, and bottlenecks. But if the model holds, Oracle may grow horizontally and vertically at the same time, precisely as the AI land grab heats up.

Can Oracle execute at hyperscale?

Winning the AI narrative is one thing; following through is another. The real test for Oracle’s AI and cloud strategy will be when it goes into action, which will be Oracle’s baptism of fire.

Oracle is in a hurry to build gigawatt-scale data centers all over the world, with dozens already in the works to handle AI training demands. This puts a lot of stress on energy infrastructure, supply chains, and chip partnerships. 

Even if Oracle’s Gen2 cloud platform is becoming more popular, it takes a lot of money and organization to compete with big players like Amazon  (AMZN)  and Microsoft  (MSFT) .

More Tech Stocks:

• Is Oklo a high-risk, high-reward investment?
• Nvidia’s deal with OpenAI ‘looks a lot like financial theater’
• Quantum computing companies looking to finance the future

The software part comes next. Sicilia’s AI-powered solutions may change the way businesses work, but they also need trust, compliance, and a lot of integration. These are not quick wins; they are long-term deployments in markets that are controlled. 

Like Palantir  (PLTR)  has done with the U.S. military establishment, Oracle needs to convince Fortune 500 clients that its AI services are not only for show, but also really vital.

All of this has to happen quickly, with Wall Street watching closely, under a co-CEO model.

Related: Ray Dalio sends Wall Street a crucial $37.5 trillion message

Oracle’s stock is going up since it verified its projection. But with heightened expectations come hazards. Any signs of friction, missed contracts, or delayed rollouts make it hard to believe that the dual-leader model can develop.

Ellison’s support and Safra Catz’s continued presence show that things are stable. But now Magouyrk and Sicilia are the only ones who are accountable for how well they do.

The machine was made by them. Now they have to use it precisely.

The stock is soaring — can the strategy keep up?

Oracle is making all of these big adjustments because ORCL, like Nvidia, is becoming a tech stock that shows how things are going. Oracle’s stock price about doubled in 2025, going up around 85% to 90% so far this year. 

If your name isn’t Nvidia  (NVDA) , you don’t typically get that type of momentum.

After its first-quarter earnings, the surge became even more because Wall Street was surprised by how much the cloud and RPO grew. Shares were up more than 35% in one day, which is uncommon for a company the size of Oracle. 

Again, there are only a few examples that come close, mathematically, to what it was able to accomplish is CoreWeave and Circle.

Circle’s IPO startled Wall Street when it raised $1.05 billion at $31 per share before climbing. The stock went up more than 200% on the first day and ultimately hit $240, which was a huge 675% gain. 

CoreWeave, which is funded by Nvidia, raised $1.5 billion at $40 a share, making the company worth $23 billion. Even though it was cut down, the stock went up 42% in three days and finally gained more than 200% from its IPO price. 

Both rallies were amazing, but they showed how exciting new technology can be. Oracle’s rally, on the other hand, showed what an old horse in the race can do. 

And why not? It has the data to back it up.

Oracle’s most recent results gave encouraging signs, but the key issue is whether the company can keep this momentum going. 

Related: Salesforce CEO sends message on Palantir after $950M deal

Key Oracle financials to keep on your radar:

• Q1 FY2026 total revenue: $14.9 billion, up approximately 12% year over year.
• Cloud revenues (IaaS + SaaS): $7.2 billion, up roughly 28%; Infrastructure (IaaS) surged about 55%.
• Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO): $455 billion, up 359%, signaling a massive contracted backlog.
• Earnings Per Share: GAAP EPS slipped to $1.01, while non-GAAP EPS rose to $1.47.

Oracle’s performance and recent rise indicate that this might be the breakthrough moment investors have been waiting for. 

The co-CEO arrangement provides strategic clarity — Magouyrk focuses on infrastructure and Sicilia on applications. If they execute in lockstep, Oracle may not only compete in AI, but also lead.

Related: Moody’s stuns with urgent call on Oracle’s future

Source link