Oracle bonds sell off as AI investment fuels investor concerns

By Matt Tracy

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL) bonds have taken a hit in recent days following a report that the cloud and artificial intelligence service provider plans to add another $38 billion to its heavy debt load to fund its AI infrastructure, according to analysts and investors.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oracle has invested billions of dollars to build out its cloud and AI infrastructure this year. With roughly $104 billion in debt outstanding, including $18 billion in bonds, the company is spending more than it earns from operations as it bets on future profits through contracts with startups such as Sam Altman-owned OpenAI. "So what's interesting is most of the (major tech) companies are trying to sustain their (stock) buyback programs at the same time that they're spending on capex currently and to do that, they're actually borrowing and so they're using debt," said Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Renewed questions around the safety of this bet appeared to have surfaced in trading of Oracle's bonds this week, following reporting by CNBC on Thursday that Oracle plans to assume an additional $38 billion in debt. The price of Oracle's bonds maturing in 2033 with a 4.9% coupon has dipped, pushing yields up more than three basis points over the last two weeks, while the yield on its newer bonds maturing in 2032 with a 4.8% coupon has risen almost two basis points in one week, according to market participants.

"There's definitely some selling pressure," said Stu Novick, tech sector credit analyst at corporate bond research firm Gimme Credit.

"The numbers are enormous (and) a lot of people are asking how are they actually make money on this stuff."

(Reporting by Matt Tracy in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Alden Bentley and Richard Chang)