Oracle Appoints Co-CEOs to Replace Longtime Leader Safra Catz
Oracle has announced the appointment of two new CEOs, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, to replace Safra Catz, who has led the company for over a decade. The decision comes as Oracle continues to ride the wave of the AI revolution, with its shares increasing by nearly 95% this year. The company’s founder, Larry Ellison, will work closely with the new co-CEOs, who have a proven track record in cloud infrastructure and applications.
Clay Magouyrk (L) and Mike Sicilia (R) will combine their strengths in cloud infrastructure and applications as Oracle’s new co-CEOs. Courtesy Oracle
A New Era for Oracle
Magouyrk, head of Oracle’s cloud infrastructure team, has overseen the rollout of platforms powering AI data centers, while Sicilia formerly led Oracle’s applications business and steered teams integrating industry-specific AI agents across areas like healthcare, banking, and communications. According to Ellison, “A few years ago, Clay and Mike committed Oracle’s Infrastructure and Application businesses to AI—it’s paying off.” He added, “They are both proven leaders, and I am looking forward to spending the coming years working side-by-side with them.”
Safra Catz helmed Oracle for more than a decade. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Oracle’s AI Ambitions
Catz, who will also be passing on her principal financial officer position to Doug Kehring, is staying on at Oracle as executive vice chair of its board of directors. Her 11-year tenure as the software company’s CEO was most recently marked by a surge across its cloud business, which generated some $3.3 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue during the July-August quarter to represent a 55% year-over-year increase. According to Oracle’s forecasts, this figure will rise to a total of $18 billion for the 2026 fiscal year, increasing to $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion over the following four years.
Behind Oracle’s ballooning fortunes is an unrelenting demand from AI developers to secure computing capacity. Over the most recent quarter, Oracle signed four multibillion-dollar contracts with three different customers and reported that its performance obligations from existing contracts surged to $455 billion—up 359% compared to the prior year. One of its most significant deals to date includes a recently announced agreement to provide OpenAI with $300 billion worth of computing power over the next five years as part of the ChatGPT-maker’s Stargate venture.
Earlier this month, Oracle’s AI dominance culminated in a share gain that sent its stock flying in the company’s biggest one-day percentage jump since 1992 and briefly made Ellison the world’s wealthiest person. “Oracle’s technology and business have never been stronger,” said Catz in a statement, adding that the company’s “breathtaking growth rate points to an even more prosperous future.”
Beyond Oracle’s AI ambitions, the tech company is also set to play a role in a looming deal that will see the Chinese-owned TikTok sell its U.S. arm to a consortium of American investors. Under an arrangement overseen by the Trump administration, Oracle will be responsible for recreating TikTok’s algorithm by retraining a new U.S. version, said White House officials today.
Image Source: observer.com
