Oracle Shakes Up Leadership: Appoints Co-CEOs as AI Push Accelerates

Oracle promotes two presidents to co-CEO role | TechCrunch

Oracle is shaking up its executive suite as it sets its sights set on AI infrastructure dominance. The company announced Monday that it is promoting Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to co-CEO roles. Magouyrk joined Oracle in 2014 from Amazon Web Services. He was a founding member of Oracle's cloud engineering team and has served as the president of Oracle's cloud infrastructure business unit for more than a decade. Sicilia has served as the president of Oracle's industries division since June. He held several different roles at the company since he joined through Oracle's acquisition of project portfolio management company Primavera Systems in 2008. Safra Catz, who has been Oracle's CEO since 2014, is moving into a new role as the executive vice chair of Oracle's board of directors. "Today, Oracle is recognized as the cloud of choice for both AI training and inferencing. I'm very proud of that," Catz said in a statement. "Oracle's technology and business have never been stronger. And our breathtaking growth rate points to an even more prosperous future. At this time of strength is the right moment to pass the CEO role to the next generation of capable executives." While traditionally known as a cloud infrastructure provider, Oracle has recently started to cement its place in the AI infrastructure race as well. Earlier this year, the company announced its participation in the $500 billion Stargate Project, alongside OpenAI and SoftBank, to build data centers and AI infrastructure in the U.S. Earlier this month, it was reported that the company inked a landmark deal with OpenAI to supply the AI company with $300 billion worth of compute. On Friday, Reuters reported that the company was signing a smaller -- but still sizable -- $20 billion compute deal with Meta. TechCrunch reached out to Oracle for more information on the transition.

Oracle Names Co-CEOs to Replace Catz as Software Provider Raises AI Bets

Oracle shares have surged this year as the AI boom boosted its cloud computing business. Oracle (ORCL) Monday named two new CEOs, including the former head of its cloud infrastructure business, to take over from Safra Catz as the software firm boosts its bets on AI. Oracle said Monday that Clay Magouyrk, president of Oracle's cloud infrastructure business, and Mike Sicilia, president of Oracle Industries, will be CEOs. Catz, who has been CEO of the firm since 2019 and was named co-CEO in 2014, will shift to a role as executive vice chair of the software company. Oracle shares have surged this year as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom boosted its cloud computing business, with the company recently saying that its backlog swelled to $455 billion after it signed four multibillion-dollar cloud deals in its fiscal first quarter. "Safra led Oracle as we became a hyperscale cloud powerhouse -- clearly demonstrated by our recent results. In her role as Vice Chair, Safra and I will be able to continue our 26-year partnership -- helping to guide Oracle's direction, growth and success," co-founder Larry Ellison said Monday. Ellison has also been touted as a member of a U.S. investor group that will control the U.S. operations of Chinese-owned ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. Oracle shares are gaining 3% in intraday trading Monday and have gained 90% so far this year.

'Oracle's Future Is Bright' With New Co-CEOs, Larry Ellison Says

Oracle appoints two new co-CEOs as former leader Safra Catz becomes executive vice chair of Oracle's board. Here's what you need to know about Oracle's new CEOs, Clay Magouyr and Mike Sicilia. Oracle has appointed Clay Magouyr and Mike Sicilia as the software giant's new co-CEOs as former CEO Safra Catz becomes executive vice chair of Oracle's board of directors. Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said the two CEOs were chosen due to their AI leadership and expertise. "Humanity is investing enormous resources in the race to advance artificial intelligence," said Ellison in a statement Monday. "Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is playing a major part in that effort. Clay's years of experience leading Oracle's large, fast-growing Cloud Infrastructure business has demonstrated his readiness for a CEO role." [Related: AWS Hires Two Vice Presidents To Drive Agentic AI For Agentcore And Kiro] Ellison said Sicilia (pictured above right) has spent the last several years modernizing Oracle's industry applications businesses -- including Oracle Health -- by rebuilding applications using the latest AI technologies. "A few years ago, Clay and Mike committed Oracle's Infrastructure and Applications businesses to AI -- it's paying off. They are both proven leaders," said Ellison. "Oracle's future is bright." Who Is Clay Magouyr? Magouyr (pictured above left) was previously president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), joining the company in 2014 from Amazon Web Services. As a founding member of Oracle's cloud engineering team, Magouyr has overseen the design and implementation of Gen2 of OCI. Gen2 is a high-performance platform that powers both hyperscale public cloud data centers and gigawatt-scale AI training data centers. Under his leadership, OCI has achieved growth and has become the go-to platform for AI training and inference, Oracle said. Who Is Mike Sicilia? Sicilia was formerly president of Oracle Industries, bringing deep expertise in vertical applications and applied AI. He joined Oracle via its acquisition of Primavera Systems. Sicilia's engineering teams pioneered the use of intent-based application generation to replace traditional coding for building Oracle applications. His teams also added sophisticated sets of AI Agents to Oracle's industry application suites -- including health care, banking, communications, utilities, hospitality and retail. "We are excited to lead Oracle into the AI era, where technological innovation leads to extraordinary business opportunity and hyper-growth," said Magouyrk and Sicilia in a joint statement Monday. "Our combined strengths in AI, cloud infrastructure, horizontal applications and industry applications will enable Oracle to deliver the latest AI capabilities to our customers." Safra Catz's New Position Safra Catz has been at the helm of Oracle since 2014. Oracle said she will continue her 26-year partnership with Ellison in her new role as executive vice chair. "Oracle's technology and business have never been stronger," said Catz in a statement. "And our breathtaking growth rate points to an even more prosperous future. At this time of strength, [this] is the right moment to pass the CEO role to the next generation of capable executives. Congratulations Clay and Mike." Other Oracle Executive Moves On Monday, Oracle also said that Mark Hura, currently executive vice president of Oracle North America sales, will become president of global field operations. Doug Kehring, the current executive vice president of operations, is being promoted to principal financial officer.

Oracle names co-CEOs to take reins from billionaire Safra Catz as...

Oracle on Monday named insiders Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, replacing Safra Catz, who was instrumental in shaping the company's cloud strategy and thrusting it to the forefront of the ongoing AI boom with big contract wins. In her 11 years at the helm, Catz turned Oracle into a cloud powerhouse from a database provider by fiercely competing for a share of the lucrative data center business with Microsoft and Alphabet, while helping drive its market capitalization to nearly a trillion dollars. She will remain with Oracle as executive vice chair of the board, the company said. Shares of Oracle are up about 85% this year amid an AI-powered surge, outperforming those of major rivals Microsoft and Alphabet and helping co-founder Larry Ellison vie for the title of the world's richest person with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Sicilia, 54, in his current role, oversees cloud-based applications and AI products, while Magouyrk, 39, manages Oracle's underlying cloud infrastructure platform that powers these applications. The promotion of the two executives underscores the tech industry and Wall Street's focus on cloud computing strategy, as companies pour billions of dollars into expanding the infrastructure that powers AI. "Investors are already familiar with both Mr. Magouryk and Mr. Sicilia and that their promotions solidify the importance of the Cloud and Industry businesses as the growth levers for the company," Evercore ISI analysts said in a note. "The bottom line is that with Larry remaining at CTO and Safra as Executive Vice Chair, we expect a smooth transition in the near-term." Oracle is currently at the center of high-profile discussions to keep TikTok operating in the United States, and all data on the app's American users will be stored on US cloud computing infrastructure run by Oracle, Reuters has reported. Additionally, the company reaffirmed its financial forecast provided earlier this month, where it said it was expecting booked revenue at its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business to exceed half a trillion dollars, pushing the stock to record highs. Oracle is reported to have signed one of the biggest cloud deals ever with OpenAI, under which the ChatGPT maker is expected to buy $300 billion in computing power from the company for about five years Safra Catz, who took over the top job jointly with the late Mark Hurd in 2014 after Ellison decided to step away from handling the day-to-day affairs of the company, has been a central figure in Oracle's many acquisitions. Under her watch, the company's shares have surged more than 586%. Catz has made a mark for herself as one of the most influential female CEOs in the tech industry and boasts a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to Forbes' real-time net worth tracker. She also holds the 15th spot on Forbes' list of "America's richest self-made women" and is 40th on its list of the "World's richest self-made women." Trained in finance and law, Catz was a Wall Street banker from 1986 until she joined Oracle in 1999. Newly appointed co-CEO Magouyrk joined Oracle in 2014 from Amazon Web Services, while Sicilia joined Oracle through the acquisition of Primavera Systems, the company said. Magouyrk will receive stock options to purchase $250 million in Oracle shares, while Sicilia will receive stock options to purchase $100 million worth of company shares. Firms across industries have been adopting a leadership structure of "co-CEOs," where more than one chief executive leads the company as enterprises expand and functions diversify. Struggling chipmaker Intel had appointed two interim CEOs prior to new CEO Lip-Bu Tan becoming the top boss. Investment group KKR is led by co-CEOs Joseph Bae and Scott Nuttall.