Larry Ellison’s betting everything on OpenAI. Will it pay off or pop the bubble? | The Verge

AIBusinessReportLarry’s risky businessOracle’s betting everything on OpenAI. Will it pay off or pop the bubble?If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.by Elizabeth LopattoApr 29, 2026, 1:57 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Oracular spectacular? | Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeElizabeth Lopatto is a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.If you want to know whether the AI bubble is bursting, there’s only one publicly traded company that will tell you: Oracle.That’s right, the database company. Oracle has burned its boats and pivoted to AI, but not in any kind of usual way. It is not a foundation model builder like OpenAI or Anthropic, obviously. It’s not quite a neocloud, though it has entered the same bare-metal business as CoreWeave. It is a software-as-a-service company that has made an audacious bet on a very specific future version of AI as Oracle’s traditional business has gracefully declined. It is significantly older than any of its AI competitors, save Microsoft, and it has decided its future involves an enormous compute deal with OpenAI, a company that does not make money.Whether OpenAI is good for its commitments to Oracle depends a lot on how much money it can raise and how quickly it can become profitable. Th...