Oracle

Recent news

• Aug 13, 2026

  Texas Governor Halts Data Center Grid Connections Pending Audit

  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state electric grid regulators to conduct a sweeping audit of every data center project seeking to connect to the Texas grid.

  • Abbott’s order halts new interconnections until the review is complete and directs ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas to verify and audit all data center projects moving through the interconnection process.
  • The order requires projects to disclose financial incentives, power source, water supply for cooling, community impact mitigation, and ownership / controlling-interest information; companies including Core Scientific, Vantage Data Centers, SB Energy, Meta, OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Oracle, Digital Realty, QTS Data Centers, Mara and Skybox Datacenters have said they will comply, while one unnamed developer and Diode ended projects.
  • Abbott’s Aug. 3 order builds on a June 10 directive establishing statewide standards, and the story notes Texas has more than 1,800 projects seeking connections and 474 gigawatts of requests, about 90% from data centers.
• Aug 11, 2026

  IT infrastructure shortages are real and lasting. Here’s how to cope

  Network World has published an analysis of IT infrastructure shortages affecting enterprise AI, networking, storage, and compute planning.

  • The article cites analysts and vendors saying memory shortages are driving lead-time extensions to 6, 12, or 18 months, with memory prices up 50% to 200%, PC prices up 35% to 45%, and some server prices up over 125%.
  • It also reports enterprise network equipment pricing is projected to rise over 20% in 2026 and by a further 3% to 5% into 2027, with no price reduction expected until end-2027; examples and advice are drawn from Gartner, TD SYNNEX, WWT, Backblaze, Cisco, and Equinix.
• Aug 4, 2026

  Data center energy constraints and moratoriums are mounting. Expect to see stalled AI projects

  New York has announced a one-year statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data center construction.

  • Governor Kathy Hochul said the order is meant to address utility bills, resource depletion, and uncertainty for New Yorkers, while the state studies data center energy demand and considers requiring operators to pay more for power or supply their own.
  • The article also cites broader sector pressures, including 127 other U.S. jurisdictions with similar moratoriums, at least 75 blocked or delayed projects worth about $130 billion in Q1 2026, and growing concerns over grid capacity, transmission bottlenecks, and AI workload demand.
• Jul 30, 2026

  El-Sayed, Stevens debate climate, health care questions ahead of Democratic Senate primary

  Michigan Senate candidates Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed debated climate, utility, and data center policy during a televised primary debate in Southfield, Michigan.

  • Haley Stevens said she would push strong climate legislation, cut utility rates or federal funding, and cited her Stop Unfair Electricity Prices Act, which would strip federal funding from investor-owned utilities that raise rates under specified conditions.
  • Abdul El-Sayed attacked DTE Energy over political spending and said it helped the company gain fast-tracked approval for Oracle and OpenAI data center contracts in Saline Township; the article also references a contested case for a planned Google data center in Van Buren Township.
  • The piece is news analysis / campaign coverage, not a new policy announcement, and it also includes upcoming MPSC meetings and debate context on air quality, wildfires, Medicare for All, and campaign financing.
• Jul 29, 2026

  Brookfield, NextEra to Develop $100B Data Center Campus at DOE’s Paducah Site, Paired With 4.6 GW of Dedicated Generation

  Brookfield and NextEra Energy have announced a $100 billion plan to develop a privately funded AI data center campus at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, paired with up to 4.6 GW of dedicated generation.

  • The campus is expected to be fully built out in 2032 and support up to 1.8 GW of utility capacity and more than 1.2 GW of compute load; Brookfield will lease land from DOE and develop and operate the campus.
  • NextEra Energy will own and operate up to 2 GW of natural gas generation and up to 2.6 GW of BESS added in stages; the project also involves Big Rivers Electric, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative, and Paducah Power System, with KPSC approval still required for the power service agreement.
• Jul 27, 2026

  Ookla: Geographic Location Impacts Cloud Responsiveness

  Ookla has published an analysis showing that geography and network infrastructure affect cloud latency for AI workloads.

  • Mike Dano wrote that “cloud latency can be impacted by a variety of factors including geographic location, internet routing infrastructure and operators’ traffic steering, peering and interconnect policies.”
  • The analysis compared U.S. cities and found higher median cloud latency in smaller, rural cities; Providence, R.I. was noted as an exception at 104 milliseconds, while Chicago generally outperformed Roswell, N.M. in many cases.
  • Ookla said Oracle generally showed higher latency than AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure; it also noted that Verizon was often fastest in Roswell and T-Mobile often fastest in Chicago.
• Jul 27, 2026

  Intel Layoffs Show Data Center Workers Aren’t Immune to Corporate Job Cuts

  Intel has announced it is preparing another round of layoffs in its data center group while saying product commitments and roadmaps will not change.

  • First reported by The Oregonian, Intel notified employees in its data center group about planned cuts; the company did not disclose the number of positions or whether Oregon employees would be affected.
  • Intel said the reorganization is part of a broader strategy to become a more focused and efficient company and to ensure the group has the right roles and skills for long-term success; Intel also reported Q1 2026 data center and AI revenue of $5.1 billion, up 22% year over year.
  • The article also notes broader industry layoffs at Oracle and Microsoft amid heavy investment in AI data center expansion, and includes analyst commentary from IDC about AI being used as a pretext for job cuts.
• Jul 24, 2026

  The Gigawatt Buildout Faces the Execution Test

  The article is an analysis and commentary piece about the data center and AI infrastructure market, highlighting several recent announcements and deals rather than a single new announcement by one entity.

  • Alphabet raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to $195 billion-$205 billion, while OpenAI said it is developing Project Camellia in Effingham County, Georgia with 3.2 GW of power to be delivered from 2028 through 2032.
  • The piece also cites the $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers by BlackRock, MGX and GIP, Hut 8‘s 15-year, 352 MW lease in Texas, and several financing and permitting pressures, including a possible $7 billion collateral requirement for Oracle in Wisconsin and $12 billion of financing for Meta’s Texas project.
• Jul 23, 2026

  White House Expands Data Center Ratepayer Pledge as Congress Moves to Codify Protections

  The White House expanded its voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge to 187 utilities, electric cooperatives, and data-center developers, while Congress advanced the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act from committee 52-0.

  • The White House said the pledge now covers 187 organizations plus 23 governors, and the coalition “protects” 263 million Americans; signatories commit to fund generation and grid upgrades for their data-center loads without shifting costs to other ratepayers.
  • The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced H.R. 9340 on July 21; the bill would require state regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider a large-load standard for sites with at least 100 MW peak demand and recover the full incremental cost of grid upgrades. New York’s Executive Order 62 separately put permits for 50 MW+ data centers on hold pending an environmental review.
• Jul 22, 2026

  Oracle expands Cloud@Customer with new database service for mid-sized workloads

  Oracle has announced Base Database Cloud@Customer, a managed database offering for running databases, applications, VMs, and AI agents in customers’ own data centers.

  • The new hybrid cloud service combines Base Database Service and Data Infrastructure Cloud@Customer X11; Oracle says it is now generally available and is aimed at enterprises that need data residency, regulatory compliance, and low latency.
  • The platform uses two Oracle X11 compute servers with shared all-flash storage, offering up to 60 usable processor cores, 660 GB memory per server, 47.2 TB storage, and 10/25 GbE networking; Oracle did not provide pricing.
  • The article frames the launch as especially relevant for regulated industries and for private AI behind the firewall, while noting that analysts expect adoption mainly among existing Oracle customers.
• Jul 17, 2026

  As AI spending surges, return-on-investment questions mount

  The New York Times reports that rapid AI infrastructure spending is creating financial risk for major technology companies, with Oracle especially exposed due to heavy AI-related investment and dependence on customers such as OpenAI.

  • Oracle is under financial pressure as it builds AI infrastructure, contributing to a debt downgrade and a decline in Larry Ellison’s holdings.
  • The article says major tech firms including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI data centers, while spending is increasingly outpacing free cash flow and forcing more reliance on debt.
• Jul 16, 2026

  Whitmer unveils data center plan that calls for legislation, promises from companies

  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has announced a Michigan Affordable and Responsible Growth Action Plan and a voluntary pledge for data center companies, while also calling on the Michigan Legislature to codify data center safeguards into state law.

  • The plan would protect residents from higher energy rates and require companies to cover their own costs, create good-paying jobs, and follow state environmental, energy, and water-use regulations.
  • Whitmer urged lawmakers to adopt Michigan Public Service Commission safeguards; environmental groups said pledges are not enough and continued to back a temporary moratorium until enforceable protections are enacted, citing risks of natural gas expansion and delays to the state’s 100% clean energy by 2040 goal.
• Jul 13, 2026

  White House plans new pledge to shield ratepayers from data center related bill hikes - report

  The US government is expected to bring together data center firms and utility companies to announce a voluntary pledge aimed at preventing data center power demand from raising electricity costs for regular ratepayers.

  • The pledge is expected to be announced at an event in the coming weeks; no company names were disclosed for the new pledge, though several major firms are expected to join.
  • The story references earlier Ratepayer Protection Pledge signatories — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI — and notes that states including Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia have adopted or proposed rules making large-load data centers pay for new infrastructure costs.
• Jul 13, 2026

  UK Treasury designates big four US hyperscalers as "Critical Third Parties"

  HM Treasury has announced the first Critical Third Party designations for major cloud providers serving the UK financial sector, bringing Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle under direct regulatory oversight from July 13.

  • The Bank of England, PRA, and FCA will jointly oversee the providers, with powers to gather information, assess resilience, and make and enforce CTP-specific rules to protect continuity of critical financial services.
  • The move follows concerns over banks, insurers, and financial market infrastructures’ reliance on cloud services; the Treasury said it is taking a “targeted and proportionate approach” and that more CTPs could follow. The article also notes a 2024 survey in which Microsoft, Google, and Amazon accounted for 73% of cloud computing services to UK financial companies, and references a $2.8 billion minimum-spend agreement for LSEG’s migration to Azure.