The quarter's arithmetic

The interim report for the quarter ended 31 August 2026 puts capital expenditures at 28.499 billion dollars and cash from operations at 23.103 billion dollars. Revenue in the same quarter rose to 19.345 billion dollars from 14.926 billion dollars and cloud revenue to 11.607 billion dollars from 7.186 billion dollars. The growth is not in dispute; the question is where it lands on the cash side.[2]

The balance sheet is where the difference is met. The same report shows 117.712 billion dollars of senior notes and other borrowings in non-current liabilities and 7.625 billion dollars in current liabilities. The question I put in the quarter when the order book reached 664 billion dollars still stands: at what speed and at what margin does that total have to convert to revenue before 28.499 billion dollars of quarterly capital expenditure earns its cost?[2], [4]

What the cancelled plan changes

Oracle said that Larry Ellison, its executive chair and chief technology officer, has cancelled the 10b5-1 plan under which he could have sold stock, that no Oracle stock was sold under it, and that he has no other plans to sell. The plan was adopted on 22 June, covered as many as 50 million shares, was due to run until 24 October, and had become public through a regulatory filing the day before it was withdrawn.[1]

Withdrawing a plan removes a supply of shares from the market; it leaves in place 28.499 billion dollars of capital expenditure that 23.103 billion dollars of cash from operations in the quarter did not cover. The cancellation carries a signal about capital allocation and moves no financing line. The opposite reading is available too: cash from operations could rise enough in coming quarters to cover the spending, and the gap would close without further borrowing.[1], [2]

Where the capital comes from

A second financing conversation surfaced in the same week. Anthropic is in talks with Nvidia over an investment of as much as 10 billion dollars that would make the chipmaker an anchor backer of its planned offering, and the company is seeking to raise as much as 100 billion dollars, a size that would value it at about 2 trillion dollars. The discussion is ongoing and could change.[3]

Two pictures describe one constraint: spending above cash from operations on one side, a chipmaker weighing an anchor investment in its customer on the other, with the capital arriving from outside the operating business. The way to measure how that constraint develops is the next interim report: if capital expenditures again exceed cash from operations, borrowings rise further from the 117.712 billion dollar base in non-current liabilities. The lines to watch are specific, and the report is due before the year ends.[2], [3]