⚠ Running the Database in Rivals' CloudsModerate threat

Oracle (ORCL) — threat to the moat

Oracle put its database inside Amazon, Microsoft and Google to keep customers, and its filing admits the same doorway lets them leave.

Oracle chose to put its database inside the clouds of its biggest competitors. It said in December 2025 that it was more than halfway through building 72 Oracle Multicloud datacenters embedded in the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds1. The logic is defensive: a customer moving its applications to Microsoft Azure can keep the Oracle database and keep paying Oracle.

Multicloud database growth, year on year (%)1,529%Q1 FY26817%Q2 FY26404%Q4 FY26Oracle Q1, Q2 and Q4 FY2026 results releases
Growth slowing as the base grows.

The same filing that describes the strategy names its risk. Oracle's annual report says multicloud "could lead our customers to migrate away" from Oracle's cloud offerings to its competitors' products2. Once the database sits beside a rival's other services, the rival can offer its own database at the next renewal.

The growth is real: Oracle reported its multicloud database business up 817% in the second quarter of fiscal 20263. Growth rates that large come from a small base, and Oracle does not disclose the revenue.

The competitive side of this arrangement is covered on the Competitors page. For the moat the test is simple: whether support and database revenue together hold steady as more of it runs in other clouds. A decline in support alongside rising multicloud growth would say the doorway works in both directions.

References
  1. ReportedIt said in December 2025 that it was more than halfway through building 72 Oracle Multicloud datacenters embedded in the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds.
    Oracle second-quarter fiscal 2026 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - multicloud datacenters, regions, chip neutrality and new commitments from Meta and NVIDIA. — Q2 FY2026 · publ. 10 December 2025 · source ↗
  2. ReportedOracle's annual report says multicloud "could lead our customers to migrate away" from Oracle's cloud offerings to its competitors' products.
    Oracle Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal 2026 (year ended 31 May 2026) - Item 1A risk factors: customer concentration and credit, multicloud, lease terms, credit ratings, export rules. — FY2026 · publ. 22 June 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe growth is real: Oracle reported its multicloud database business up 817% in the second quarter of fiscal 2026.
    Oracle second-quarter fiscal 2026 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - multicloud datacenters, regions, chip neutrality and new commitments from Meta and NVIDIA. — Q2 FY2026 · publ. 10 December 2025 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 25, 2026