All posts tagged: oracle

Oracle converges the AI data stack to give enterprise agents a single version of truth

Oracle converges the AI data stack to give enterprise agents a single version of truth

Published by skeptic

Enterprise data teams moving agentic AI into production are hitting a consistent failure point at the data tier. Agents built across a vector store, a relational database, a graph store and a lakehouse require sync pipelines to keep context current. Under production load, that context goes stale.  Oracle, whose database infrastructure runs the transaction systems of 97% of Fortune Global 100 companies by the company’s own count, is now making a direct architectural argument that the database is the right place to fix that problem. Oracle this week announced a set of agentic AI capabilities for Oracle AI Database, built around a direct architectural counter-argument to that pattern. The core of the release is the Unified Memory Core, a single ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability)-transactional engine that processes vector, JSON, graph, relational, spatial and columnar data without a sync layer. Alongside that, Oracle announced Vectors on Ice for native vector indexing on Apache Iceberg tables, a standalone Autonomous AI Vector Database service and an Autonomous AI Database MCP Server for direct agent access without …

Oracle rallies as strong revenue forecast eases concerns over massive AI bets

Oracle rallies as strong revenue forecast eases concerns over massive AI bets

Published by Sam Flores

March 11 : Oracle shares surged about 12 per cent in early trading on Wednesday after the software giant’s upbeat revenue forecast eased concerns over its hefty spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. While Oracle was a latecomer to the cloud industry, it swiftly recognized the artificial intelligence boom, rapidly building out data centers filled with premium processors for customers such as Meta and OpenAI. Still, the firm has borrowed heavily to fund the data center build-outs, heavily exposing it to any potential downturn in the market. In February, the company said it planned to raise up to $50 billion in debt and equity to build capacity. “We don’t think the debates around financing are going away anytime soon. But importantly, many of the new AI contracts are structured so customers either pay upfront or bring their own hardware, which means Oracle can grow future revenue commitments without taking on the full cost itself,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Oracle’s five-year credit default swaps, a gauge of how much investors charge to …

Oracle sees AI boom through at least 2027, sending shares up 8%

Oracle sees AI boom through at least 2027, sending shares up 8%

Published by Sam Flores

March 10 : Oracle on Tuesday predicted that the AI data center boom will power its revenue above Wall Street estimates well into 2027, sending its shares up 8.3 per cent in extended trading.   The results help to allay investor concerns that Oracle’s costly multi-billion dollar push into AI computing would not generate profits quickly enough. Oracle has made a dramatic turn toward building data centers for partners such as OpenAI and Meta, while at the same time enacting layoffs as it uses smaller engineering teams and AI coding tools to roll out new software for its longtime customer base of large businesses. Remaining performance obligations (RPO), a key indicator of future contracted revenue, grew 325 per cent from last year to $553 billion in the third quarter, ahead of the $540.37 billion estimate from four Visible Alpha analysts. Oracle had reported RPO of $523 billion in the previous quarter. Most of the increase in RPO in the quarter is related to large-scale AI contracts where Oracle, which has borrowed heavily, “does not expect to have …

Oracle Axing Huge Number of Jobs as AI Crisis Intensifies

Oracle Axing Huge Number of Jobs as AI Crisis Intensifies

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech AI companies are spending vast sums of money on data centers — infrastructure expenditures that come with some hair-raising price tags. As Bloomberg reported last week, Larry Ellison’s Oracle may have spread itself a little too thin. The company is planning to cut thousands of jobs due to a “cash crunch” resulting from a massive AI data center expansion effort. Inside sources told the outlet that at least some of the cut jobs will affect categories that will no longer be needed due to AI. Even job listings in its cloud division are reportedly being reviewed, indicating a serious downscaling effort. A day after the story was published, Bloomberg subsequently reported that the company had ended its plans to expand its flagship AI data center in Abilene, Texas, after “negotiations dragged over financing” and its project partner OpenAI changed its mind on the matter. The data center is part of president Donald Trump’s flagging $500 billion Stargate project, …

Ancient Greece’s most famous oracle was just high on gas fumes

Ancient Greece’s most famous oracle was just high on gas fumes

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. For centuries, people traveled to Delphi in southern Greece hoping for a glimpse of their future. There, at the temple of the god Apollo, a priestess was said to enter a trance and issue prophecies in the voice of Apollo himself. Everyday people, kings, even Alexander the Great traveled for miles to hear the priestess’s input on important decisions, from personal finance to matters of state. Known as the Pythia or the Oracle of Delphi, the priestess wasn’t believed to be a psychic. Ancient writers like Plutarch, who served as a priest at Delphi in the first and second centuries, described her as a vessel for a power that came from the Earth.  According to Plutarch’s account, the temple of Delphi was constructed around a natural spring, where the water and fissures in the rock produced a sweet-smelling gas called pneuma. On designated days a few times per year, the chosen priestess sat amidst the pneuma on a tripod …

The billion-dollar infrastructure deals powering the AI boom

The billion-dollar infrastructure deals powering the AI boom

Published by skeptic

It takes a lot of computing power to run an AI product — and as the tech industry races to tap the power of AI models, there’s a parallel race underway to build the infrastructure that will power them. On a recent earnings call, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang estimated that between $3 trillion and $4 trillion will be spent on AI infrastructure by the end of the decade — with much of that money coming from AI companies. Along the way, they’re placing immense strain on power grids and pushing the industry’s building capacity to its limit. Below, we’ve laid out everything we know about the biggest AI infrastructure projects, including major spending from Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI. We’ll keep it updated as the boom continues and the numbers climb even higher. Microsoft’s 2019 investment in OpenAI This is arguably the deal that kicked off the whole contemporary AI boom: In 2019, Microsoft made a $1 billion investment in a buzzy non-profit called OpenAI, known mostly for its association with Elon Musk. Crucially, …

Amazon and Google are winning the AI capex race — but what’s the prize?

Amazon and Google are winning the AI capex race — but what’s the prize?

Published by skeptic

Sometimes, it can seem like the AI industry is racing to see who can spend the most money on data centers. Whoever builds the most data centers will have the most compute, the thinking goes, and thus be able to build the best AI products, which will guarantee victory in the years to come. There are limits to this way of thinking — traditionally, businesses eventually succeed by making more money and spending less — but it’s proven remarkably persuasive for large tech companies. If that is the game, Amazon does seem to be winning. The company announced in its earnings on Thursday that it projects $200 billion in capital expenditures throughout 2026, across “AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.” That’s up from the $131.8 billion in capex in 2025. It’s tempting to attribute the whole capex budget to AI. But unlike most of its competitors, Amazon has a significant physical plant, some of which is being converted for use by expensive robots, so the non-AI expenses aren’t so easy to wave away. …

Truly divine coffee – but devilishly expensive: Sage Oracle Jet espresso machine review | Coffee

Truly divine coffee – but devilishly expensive: Sage Oracle Jet espresso machine review | Coffee

Published by Sam Flores

In ancient Greece, people in need of advice would seek out their local oracle. The fee for divine guidance would be paid for by animal sacrifice – a goat, or perhaps a sheep for particularly pressing issues. Fast forward to 2026, and inflation has taken its toll. The price of admission to Sage’s Oracle Jet is now closer to that of a cow. For anyone who isn’t a regular at their local livestock markets, that’s about £1,700. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. However, the Oracle Jet does exactly what it says on the tin. This is an assisted espresso machine that guides users from coffee bean to espresso cup (hence the “Oracle”), froths milk to silken perfection, and heats up in seconds because of the use of fast-heating ThermoJet technology (yep, “Jet”). It promises “third-wave specialty coffee” in the comfort of your own kitchen – that’s really good coffee, in other words. A large colour touchscreen leads users through every step, …

What you should know about the owners of US TikTok

What you should know about the owners of US TikTok

Published by skeptic

​ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, recently established a separate American entity to run the app’s U.S. operations. This restructuring aims to separate U.S. TikTok from its Chinese parent, addressing concerns about data privacy and foreign control. The move came after years of pressure from lawmakers, who feared the Chinese government’s potential access to Americans’ data. In 2024, Congress enacted a law, mandating that TikTok’s U.S. operations be separated from ByteDance. ​Under the new structure, about 80% of the U.S. TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors, with ByteDance keeping only a 19.9% share. The newly formed entity, “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” licenses TikTok’s recommendation algorithm from ByteDance and independently manages content moderation, and oversees data protection, algorithm security, and software controls. The managing investor group consists of Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and the investment firm MGX. Each holds a 15% stake, totaling 45% of the U.S. business. Here’s what you should know about them. Oracle Oracle is a leading cloud computing and database firm that collaborates with top companies, such as …