Oracle's $30B AI Deal Signals Massive Infrastructure Demand
OpenAI's reported $30B annual commitment to Oracle for data center services highlights the enormous and growing infrastructure demands of AI development. This validates traditional cloud providers and signals a boom in adjacent markets, including advanced energy solutions, cooling technologies, and specialized talent acquisition.
Origin Reddit Post
r/technology
OpenAI agreed to pay Oracle $30B a year for data center services
Posted by u/bambin0•07/23/2025
Top Comments
u/Lauiasz
Adobe?
u/tomgreen99200
Why Broadcom?
u/CcntMnky
Oracle is 5th place in a 2-way race.
u/keldawgz
It’s not the monthly subscriptions, it’s the companies paying to access their API and build openAI models into their own products
u/t33po
Advertising. It always goes back to ads.
u/bvknight
Paying a vendor 10% of your company's hypothetical worth (not even your revenue) every year seems like a bad idea.
u/fullchub
I haven’t looked at the details but I imagine that “new contracts” can mean a lot of things, and doesn’t necessarily mean that the revenue is impending or even guaranteed. There could be some
u/tomgreen99200
That doesn’t seem sustainable
u/burnhaze4days
How? They lose money on even the highest paid monthly subscriptions.
u/_rise_and_shine
Isn’t the 30bn deal for the stargate partnership that oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank are all part of
u/sandy017
meanwhile my wife, an Oracle employees only makes 60,000 a fucking year
u/Swiftzor
Speculation, a lot of the AI industry right now is being propped up with the promise of what it can do in the future completely ignoring what it’s doing now. A lot of CEOs hear that something
u/FixingMyTimeMachine
I work at OCI and am in a position where I get to observe traffic flowing in and out of the platform.
I understand that OCI isn’t the most user friendly for retail customers, but that’s not
u/NaFo_Operator
sometimes they like to pull a train on a customer
u/missed_sla
OpenAI could end world hunger with the amount of investor cash they're burning.
u/fuck_all_you_too
Shitty person giving shitty person money.
u/epochwin
Ellison is on good terms with Trump right? So maybe some sweet defense contracts via the partnership
u/SquizzOC
Only Broadcom fucks their customers more than Oracle.
u/drawkbox
OpenAI just jumped the shark.
[Oracle’s Larry Ellison sees AI supervision keeping citizens on ‘best behavior’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQqQtgRdjZU)
u/fullchub
The numbers don’t really make sense. The article says they’ll pay Oracle $30 billion/year for future data center usage that apparently depends on a massive build-out. Meanwhile Oracle’s total
u/Lauiasz
Adobe?
u/HighGnoller
believe it or not? puts.
u/swarmy1
While Microsoft is building out datacenters, they also have stated they plan to lease a lot of compute going forward.
It seems like they aren't convinced that it's worth doing a massive cap
u/sgtakase
They should have done business with pied piper
u/nighthawk_md
The Ellison kids' hobbies are not getting any cheaper, ya know
u/I_AmA_Zebra
I believe it’s just so expensive to be an AI company like Open AI, that they’re all burning through cash to be last one/few standing
Whether by muscle or by lack of funds, others will slowly
u/epochwin
Ellison is on good terms with Trump right? So maybe some sweet defense contracts via the partnership
u/aquarain
Sometimes I wish I was unscrupulous enough to get in on this scam.
u/sgtakase
They should have done business with pied piper
u/non_clever_username
Yeah that 10% is going to become 50% in like 5 years the way those assholes charge
u/headhunt3r
Does Microsoft not offer data centers? Is this another move by Altman to distance himself from Microsoft?
u/Warlornn
Especially one like Oracle, that has a long and well-documented history of absolutely fucking their customers over *haaaaaaaard.*
u/beaucoup_dinky_dau
you had them at most free.
u/Handyandy58
Your tax dollars will be used for government contracts. They are never going to make good money from consumer use cases.
u/ChildObstacle
If you’re poking fun at OCI you’d be surprised a bit at how far they’ve come. They’re also way cheaper.
I’ve seen more and more partnerships on OCI happening over the last couple of years. S
u/simsimulation
Jesus, I assumed Oracle was giving it away for free just to get a taste.
u/usrnmz
The problem is their competitors have plenty of cash flow from other sources to burn forever.
u/drawkbox
OpenAI just jumped the shark.
[Oracle’s Larry Ellison sees AI supervision keeping citizens on ‘best behavior’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQqQtgRdjZU)
u/Swiftzor
Speculation, a lot of the AI industry right now is being propped up with the promise of what it can do in the future completely ignoring what it’s doing now. A lot of CEOs hear that something
u/Pyriel
Bought VMware, then cancelled a load of existing licenses.
Basically Screwing over it's customer base for more profit.
u/FatStoic
it's oracle's modus operandi to fuck you over, they've been doing it so long they will, in fact, be surprised and hurt if you get upset about it
u/simsimulation
Jesus, I assumed Oracle was giving it away for free just to get a taste.
u/HighGnoller
believe it or not? puts.
u/DM_ME_UR_BOOTYPICS
Todays price is not yesterdays price.
u/wheres_my_ballot
Don't worry, they can just lobotomize their models more on the lower tiers to push their customers to pay for increasingly higher tiers. No way that can go wrong.
u/TattooedBrogrammer
Enjoy the crap fest that is Oracle cloud haha. We migrated off of them years ago because there were so many issues we finally attributed to Oracle Cloud and it wasted so much time. Got onto A
u/AdverbAssassin
I smell bullshit
u/PhireKappa
I don’t think I’ve used a single Oracle product and enjoyed the experience.
u/beaucoup_dinky_dau
you had them at most free.
u/drawkbox
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes"
The bug is a feature.
u/mvaaam
That low price makes them attractive to small businesses. Those businesses then want a cheaper AWS.
u/grumpy_autist
this time will be different /s
u/Ronaldis
Imagine how many egg rolls that amount of money could buy.
u/Legitimate-Store3771
Basically Uber. And clearly that worked out.
u/neon_farts
I went through a sales cycle with them, for OCI. Their problem is that they’re what AWS was 10 years ago. So far behind the curve they compete by being the lowest price hyperscaler
Edit: wor
u/bvknight
Paying a vendor 10% of your company's hypothetical worth (not even your revenue) every year seems like a bad idea.
u/AdverbAssassin
I smell bullshit
u/habitual_viking
The cool thing about this is that due to AI slob, it’s now basically fact, since no one will be able to figure out the original source and any model trained today will claim this as facts.
u/Nobatron
I’m out of the loop here. What did Broadcom do?
u/SovietChewbacca
AT&T has entered the chat
u/keldawgz
It’s not the monthly subscriptions, it’s the companies paying to access their API and build openAI models into their own products
u/AdverbAssassin
Bill Gates is pretty much a saint in the business world these days. It's become pretty bad out there. Gates did a couple dirty things but wasn't Machiavellian in anything he did. He was just
u/MaybeTheDoctor
Was Microsoft OpenAI not once best friends?
u/Horror_Response_1991
I’m guessing they chose Oracle because they’re the one company too stupid to know how AI works so you don’t have to worry about theft
u/drawkbox
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes"
The bug is a feature.
u/ChildObstacle
If you’re poking fun at OCI you’d be surprised a bit at how far they’ve come. They’re also way cheaper.
I’ve seen more and more partnerships on OCI happening over the last couple of years. S
u/Stilgar314
I like to compare Oracle with those building-sized trucks for quarries. You're mad if you get Oracle for your small, medium, or even large in most situations, organization. But there's a busi
u/mcs5280
Satan pays Satan $30 billion
u/itsRobbie_
I swear money isn’t real. Like what? 30 billion dollars a year? Jesus Christ. I don’t even make a thousand dollars a year 💀
u/JustKeepRedditn010
Yeah the TechCrunch article is shit. The author states that Altman claims they signed a deal with Oracle, while Oracle separately mentions signing a contract worth $30 billion (while not disc
u/Sufficient-Carpet391
Chill out man, AI is gonna make us all rich and we’ll all live by the beach getting six figures from the government. Atleast thats what r/openAI tells me
u/damp_monkey
In June OpenAI reported $10B in recurring revenue, so all they have to do is triple their intake and ignore expenses and the Oracle deal I'll get paid next year no problem! Obvious/s
u/t33po
Advertising. It always goes back to ads.
u/Legitimate-Store3771
Basically Uber. And clearly that worked out.
u/schw061
I love that you were quick to highlight this as I find AI distortion of fact really fascinating (and scary). Doing a little research I found a WSJ article that does specifically cite the $30B
u/Swiftzor
I mean, maybe Oracle will solve this problem for us then?
u/missed_sla
OpenAI could end world hunger with the amount of investor cash they're burning.
u/BloodBlizzard
As someone currently working on trying to migrate from Oracle, I can confirm. Our fees more than tripled in 4 years.
u/HawkeyeGild
This is crazy! Makes you wonder what's going on with their relationship with Microsoft
u/Sushi-And-The-Beast
Lol. Im just saying since Oracle is evil. And Broadcom is evil too. Screwing up VMWare for everyone.
u/The_Starmaker
That…is insane. I mean talk about a deal with the devil…though I doubt the actual devil charges as much.
Like all Oracle customers, OpenAI will come to sorely regret it in due time.
u/usrnmz
The problem is their competitors have plenty of cash flow from other sources to burn forever.
u/IAmFitzRoy
There are still some people in this sub that believe that AI is going to be for everyone and everyone will benefit. Really naive take.
u/Horror_Response_1991
I’m guessing they chose Oracle because they’re the one company too stupid to know how AI works so you don’t have to worry about theft
u/WTFAnimations
Textbook Larry Ellison strategy. Makes Bill Gates look like a saint business-wise.
u/Hauber_RBLX
but think of the sad shareholders!11!!
they gotta get food on the table somehow!11!!!
/s if it wasnt already apparent enough
u/grumpy_autist
this time will be different /s
u/mcs5280
Satan pays Satan $30 billion
u/I_AmA_Zebra
I believe it’s just so expensive to be an AI company like Open AI, that they’re all burning through cash to be last one/few standing
Whether by muscle or by lack of funds, others will slowly
u/colin8651
Asked ChatGPT about things to know about Oracle before contracting with them.
First rule of dealing with Oracle:
Never give them your real phone number — unless you’re ready for a 20-year
u/iamarddtusr
Imagine the sales commission on that deal.
u/Howdyini
From where is that money coming?
u/ErgoMachina
Oracle? Are they mad?
u/bvknight
I agree with you, but doesn't the article also say that it's Oracle itself that's claiming someone is paying them $30B a year in new contracts?
u/AsterionDB
I've been working w/ Oracle since '84. Never worked for them. Got friends and relationships w/ people that are still there.
Yep.....
u/rnilf
> Last month, Altman said that OpenAI recently hit $10 billion in annual recurring revenue, up from around $5.5 billion last year. This single commitment to Oracle is already triple per ye
u/nighthawk_md
The Ellison kids' hobbies are not getting any cheaper, ya know
u/RandoDude124
In other words…
#We in a bubble
u/drkcyber
thats insane money. you know they are about to get that back from the masses lol.
u/oracleofnonsense
In retort…..Tomorrow’s price is not Wednesday’s price. Unless today is Tuesday.
u/Howdyini
From where is that money coming?
u/nothingaboutme
The energy expenditure for that data center is so large they could almost send Marty into the past 4 times to tell open AI not to do that deal.
u/beatlemaniac007
Why everyone regret oracle
u/non_clever_username
Yeah that 10% is going to become 50% in like 5 years the way those assholes charge
u/Sushi-And-The-Beast
How much will they pay Broadcom next?
u/beatlemaniac007
Why everyone regret oracle
u/_rise_and_shine
Isn’t the 30bn deal for the stargate partnership that oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank are all part of
u/neon_farts
I went through a sales cycle with them, for OCI. Their problem is that they’re what AWS was 10 years ago. So far behind the curve they compete by being the lowest price hyperscaler
Edit: wor
u/The_Starmaker
That…is insane. I mean talk about a deal with the devil…though I doubt the actual devil charges as much.
Like all Oracle customers, OpenAI will come to sorely regret it in due time.
u/FatStoic
yes and no, the thing is they're actually delivering on some of their promises
the coding tools are now so good that there is almost no market for junior developers, and they're improving al
u/IsThereAnythingLeft-
They are the cheapest hyperscaler for hosting on and link in with all other hyper scalers clouds tbf, seems ideal for AI training
u/fuck_all_you_too
Shitty person giving shitty person money.
u/ErgoMachina
Oracle? Are they mad?
u/AdverbAssassin
Bill Gates is pretty much a saint in the business world these days. It's become pretty bad out there. Gates did a couple dirty things but wasn't Machiavellian in anything he did. He was just
u/Sufficient-Carpet391
Chill out man, AI is gonna make us all rich and we’ll all live by the beach getting six figures from the government. Atleast thats what r/openAI tells me
u/youcantfixhim
Unfortunately for OpenAI they’re competing against Microsoft / copilot…
u/fuck_all_you_too
Shitty person giving shitty person money.
u/NaFo_Operator
sometimes they like to pull a train on a customer
u/DaLurker87
So this will add 50% to oracles annual revenue
u/callat
Why not Microsoft, their biggest backer?
u/Sushi-And-The-Beast
Lol. Im just saying since Oracle is evil. And Broadcom is evil too. Screwing up VMWare for everyone.
u/Broomstick73
I didn’t even know Oracle sold data center services.
u/SovietChewbacca
AT&T has entered the chat
u/AsterionDB
I've been working w/ Oracle since '84. Never worked for them. Got friends and relationships w/ people that are still there.
Yep.....
u/IsThereAnythingLeft-
I’m nearly sure the 30B deal was a multi years deal not 30B a year
u/SomeGuyNamedPaul
I never put that together, probably because he toned it down so much.
u/mcs5280
Satan pays Satan $30 billion
u/owen__wilsons__nose
The way its titled makes it sound like they lost a legal battle and were forced into this deal lol
u/oracleofnonsense
In retort…..Tomorrow’s price is not Wednesday’s price. Unless today is Tuesday.
u/tastiefreeze
Cisco would like a word
u/drkcyber
thats insane money. you know they are about to get that back from the masses lol.
u/schw061
I love that you were quick to highlight this as I find AI distortion of fact really fascinating (and scary). Doing a little research I found a WSJ article that does specifically cite the $30B
u/TattooedBrogrammer
Enjoy the crap fest that is Oracle cloud haha. We migrated off of them years ago because there were so many issues we finally attributed to Oracle Cloud and it wasted so much time. Got onto A
u/FatStoic
it's oracle's modus operandi to fuck you over, they've been doing it so long they will, in fact, be surprised and hurt if you get upset about it
u/ErgoMachina
Oracle? Are they mad?
u/drkcyber
thats insane money. you know they are about to get that back from the masses lol.
u/rnilf
> Last month, Altman said that OpenAI recently hit $10 billion in annual recurring revenue, up from around $5.5 billion last year. This single commitment to Oracle is already triple per ye
u/kenlubin
"You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop
u/IsThereAnythingLeft-
I’m nearly sure the 30B deal was a multi years deal not 30B a year
u/Pyriel
Bought VMware, then cancelled a load of existing licenses.
Basically Screwing over it's customer base for more profit.
u/warbeforepeace
David Fincher based the lust scene in Seven on his experience as an Oracle customer.
u/FatStoic
yes and no, the thing is they're actually delivering on some of their promises
the coding tools are now so good that there is almost no market for junior developers, and they're improving al
u/darkgothmog
They can only get two or three enterprise licenses from Oracle with that money
u/IAmFitzRoy
There are still some people in this sub that believe that AI is going to be for everyone and everyone will benefit. Really naive take.
u/burnhaze4days
How? They lose money on even the highest paid monthly subscriptions.
u/darkgothmog
They can only get two or three enterprise licenses from Oracle with that money
u/7fingersDeep
Do NOT anthropomorphize Larry Ellison.
u/Broomstick73
I didn’t even know Oracle sold data center services.
u/headhunt3r
Does Microsoft not offer data centers? Is this another move by Altman to distance himself from Microsoft?
u/SquizzOC
Only Broadcom fucks their customers more than Oracle.
u/warbeforepeace
David Fincher based the lust scene in Seven on his experience as an Oracle customer.
u/bvknight
Paying a vendor 10% of your company's hypothetical worth (not even your revenue) every year seems like a bad idea.
u/damp_monkey
In June OpenAI reported $10B in recurring revenue, so all they have to do is triple their intake and ignore expenses and the Oracle deal I'll get paid next year no problem! Obvious/s
u/tomgreen99200
Why Broadcom?
u/sjnyo
Not just that but older mainframe platforms like Gen which is used heavily in banking, and large old enterprise - the renewal price gouging year in year by Broadcom is crazy + they try and li
u/DM_ME_UR_BOOTYPICS
Todays price is not yesterdays price.
u/darkgothmog
You can enjoy Oracle products just after they bought it from someone else, then they’ll slowly add crapware like their database in it.
When Oracle buys a software you’re using, it’s the signa
u/fullchub
I haven’t looked at the details but I imagine that “new contracts” can mean a lot of things, and doesn’t necessarily mean that the revenue is impending or even guaranteed. There could be some
u/tastiefreeze
Cisco would like a word
u/JustKeepRedditn010
Yeah the TechCrunch article is shit. The author states that Altman claims they signed a deal with Oracle, while Oracle separately mentions signing a contract worth $30 billion (while not disc
u/bvknight
I agree with you, but doesn't the article also say that it's Oracle itself that's claiming someone is paying them $30B a year in new contracts?
u/papai_psiquico
Oracle only expertise is how to scam costumers but sure…
u/SomeGuyNamedPaul
I never put that together, probably because he toned it down so much.
u/Sunsparc
> Bought VMware, then cancelled a load of existing licenses.
And juiced it's top clients for a shit ton more money. They're whalers now, not fishers.
u/Stilgar314
I like to compare Oracle with those building-sized trucks for quarries. You're mad if you get Oracle for your small, medium, or even large in most situations, organization. But there's a busi
u/iamarddtusr
Imagine the sales commission on that deal.
u/The_Starmaker
That…is insane. I mean talk about a deal with the devil…though I doubt the actual devil charges as much.
Like all Oracle customers, OpenAI will come to sorely regret it in due time.
u/ZveraR
If you think Oracle fucks their customers hard, I work in consulting and seen 9 figure projects move from Oracle to SAP and within the span of 2 years move back to Oracle.
Everyone is out to
u/Warlornn
Especially one like Oracle, that has a long and well-documented history of absolutely fucking their customers over *haaaaaaaard.*
u/ZveraR
If you think Oracle fucks their customers hard, I work in consulting and seen 9 figure projects move from Oracle to SAP and within the span of 2 years move back to Oracle.
Everyone is out to
u/wheres_my_ballot
Don't worry, they can just lobotomize their models more on the lower tiers to push their customers to pay for increasingly higher tiers. No way that can go wrong.
u/Nobatron
I’m out of the loop here. What did Broadcom do?
u/Hauber_RBLX
but think of the sad shareholders!11!!
they gotta get food on the table somehow!11!!!
/s if it wasnt already apparent enough
u/epochwin
Ellison is on good terms with Trump right? So maybe some sweet defense contracts via the partnership
u/youcantfixhim
Unfortunately for OpenAI they’re competing against Microsoft / copilot…
u/burneremailaccount
I don’t see how with Bing AI and Google Gemini. I think the masses will gravitate towards what is most free and least ad intrusive.
u/Handyandy58
Your tax dollars will be used for government contracts. They are never going to make good money from consumer use cases.
u/Phantomebb
I mean how is Nvidia a 4 trillion dollar company? Speculation. Where do they make money? 85% of their 35 billion quarterly reavnue is data centers. Considering how capped everyone is building
u/swarmy1
While Microsoft is building out datacenters, they also have stated they plan to lease a lot of compute going forward.
It seems like they aren't convinced that it's worth doing a massive cap
u/Swiftzor
I mean, maybe Oracle will solve this problem for us then?
u/Sushi-And-The-Beast
How much will they pay Broadcom next?
u/itsRobbie_
I swear money isn’t real. Like what? 30 billion dollars a year? Jesus Christ. I don’t even make a thousand dollars a year 💀
u/rnilf
> Last month, Altman said that OpenAI recently hit $10 billion in annual recurring revenue, up from around $5.5 billion last year. This single commitment to Oracle is already triple per ye
u/burneremailaccount
I don’t see how with Bing AI and Google Gemini. I think the masses will gravitate towards what is most free and least ad intrusive.
u/Phantomebb
I mean how is Nvidia a 4 trillion dollar company? Speculation. Where do they make money? 85% of their 35 billion quarterly reavnue is data centers. Considering how capped everyone is building
u/aquarain
Sometimes I wish I was unscrupulous enough to get in on this scam.
u/Ronaldis
Imagine how many egg rolls that amount of money could buy.
u/sandy017
meanwhile my wife, an Oracle employees only makes 60,000 a fucking year
u/7fingersDeep
Do NOT anthropomorphize Larry Ellison.
u/nothingaboutme
The energy expenditure for that data center is so large they could almost send Marty into the past 4 times to tell open AI not to do that deal.
u/Sunsparc
> Bought VMware, then cancelled a load of existing licenses.
And juiced it's top clients for a shit ton more money. They're whalers now, not fishers.
u/FixingMyTimeMachine
I work at OCI and am in a position where I get to observe traffic flowing in and out of the platform.
I understand that OCI isn’t the most user friendly for retail customers, but that’s not
u/callat
Why not Microsoft, their biggest backer?
u/PhireKappa
I don’t think I’ve used a single Oracle product and enjoyed the experience.
u/Warlornn
Especially one like Oracle, that has a long and well-documented history of absolutely fucking their customers over *haaaaaaaard.*
u/CcntMnky
Oracle is 5th place in a 2-way race.
u/IsThereAnythingLeft-
They are the cheapest hyperscaler for hosting on and link in with all other hyper scalers clouds tbf, seems ideal for AI training
u/WTFAnimations
Textbook Larry Ellison strategy. Makes Bill Gates look like a saint business-wise.
u/HawkeyeGild
This is crazy! Makes you wonder what's going on with their relationship with Microsoft
u/kenlubin
"You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop
u/mvaaam
That low price makes them attractive to small businesses. Those businesses then want a cheaper AWS.
u/habitual_viking
The cool thing about this is that due to AI slob, it’s now basically fact, since no one will be able to figure out the original source and any model trained today will claim this as facts.
u/DaLurker87
So this will add 50% to oracles annual revenue
u/darkgothmog
You can enjoy Oracle products just after they bought it from someone else, then they’ll slowly add crapware like their database in it.
When Oracle buys a software you’re using, it’s the signa
u/colin8651
Asked ChatGPT about things to know about Oracle before contracting with them.
First rule of dealing with Oracle:
Never give them your real phone number — unless you’re ready for a 20-year
u/tomgreen99200
That doesn’t seem sustainable
u/fujidust
They have to build this massive data center which is going to take enormous amount of capital and know-how. Who else has the resources, expertise, and reliability to do this within the US?
u/sjnyo
Not just that but older mainframe platforms like Gen which is used heavily in banking, and large old enterprise - the renewal price gouging year in year by Broadcom is crazy + they try and li
u/RandoDude124
In other words…
#We in a bubble
u/BloodBlizzard
As someone currently working on trying to migrate from Oracle, I can confirm. Our fees more than tripled in 4 years.
u/fullchub
The numbers don’t really make sense. The article says they’ll pay Oracle $30 billion/year for future data center usage that apparently depends on a massive build-out. Meanwhile Oracle’s total
u/Caddy000
Finally, getting paid for AI, everything else seems like hype