Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) founder Larry Ellison has adopted a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan that could result in the sale of up to 50 million shares of the technology company.
According to a regulatory filing released on September 12, the plan was adopted on June 22 and remains in effect through October 24. Based on Oracle’s press-time share price of about $150, the authorized sale could be worth roughly $7.5 billion.
The development is significant because Ellison, Oracle’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, has rarely sold large portions of his stake in the company.
Even if he sells all 50 million shares, he would still control about 1.1 billion Oracle shares, maintaining ownership of more than 40% of the company.
The newly disclosed Oracle 10b5-1 plan marks a notable shift for Ellison, who has traditionally held most of his Oracle position and relied on borrowing rather than stock sales to access liquidity.
Historically, his transactions have involved relatively small amounts of stock. As a result, the possibility of a multibillion-dollar sale stands out as one of the largest insider trading developments involving Oracle in recent years.
While Rule 10b5-1 plans are commonly used by executives to schedule stock sales in advance and avoid accusations of trading on nonpublic information, investors often monitor them closely for signals about insider sentiment.
Notably, large insider sales can pressure a stock, especially when they involve a founder and major shareholder.
Investors will watch upcoming Form 4 filings to see whether Ellison sells shares under the plan. However, he would still retain one of the largest founder stakes in the technology sector, keeping his interests aligned with shareholders.
The potential sale comes as Oracle continues an aggressive push into artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud computing.
Oracle stock fundamentals
In this line, Oracle is experiencing some of the fastest growth in its history, fueled by surging demand for AI infrastructure and cloud services.
In its latest quarter, revenue rose 30% year over year to $19.3 billion, while total cloud revenue jumped 62% to $11.6 billion. The company’s flagship Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) business grew 121% to $7.4 billion, reflecting strong enterprise demand for AI computing capacity.
Oracle also signed more than $30 billion in new AI cloud contracts during the quarter, helping push its remaining performance obligations (RPO) to a record $664 billion, up $209 billion from a year earlier.
Despite the strong performance, Oracle’s AI expansion comes with high costs. The company has increased borrowing and plans additional fundraising to support large-scale data center investments.
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