Good morning. Hilary Maxson is stepping into the CFO role at Oracle at a pivotal—and risky—moment. As the company invests heavily in AI infrastructure to keep pace with other hyperscalers, the job is no longer just about financial stewardship; it’s about managing the trade-offs of a capital-intensive bet on the future.
Maxson began as CFO on Monday, the company announced. She was previously EVP and group CFO at Schneider Electric and spent 12 years at AES Corporation in senior roles across finance, strategy, and M&A. Doug Kehring will transition out of his role as Oracle’s principal financial officer.
Larry Ellison, co-founder and CTO of Oracle, briefly became the world’s richest person in September 2025 as the company’s stock surged 40%, adding about $100 billion to over $400 billion, but by April 2026, AI spending concerns halved the stock, cutting over $200 billion and leaving his net worth near $200 billion.
Maxson joins Oracle during a period of “rapid growth as customer demand for cloud infrastructure exceeds supply,” the company said. Demand for AI training, multi-cloud databases, and cloud applications is driving rapid expansion.
“We found a financial leader who matches our culture of strong financial and operational discipline and has experience scaling capital-intensive global organizations,” Clay Magouyrk, co-CEO of Oracle, said in a statement.
Since Maxson joined Schneider Electric in 2017, the company transformed from an electrical equipment supplier into a digital energy technology partner for utilities and data centers, focusing on software, data, and AI. She led its global finance organization, overseeing capital allocation, business model transformation, and long-term value creation.
“Cloud infrastructure buildout will remain the top priority for Oracle, without any doubt,” Luke Yang, an equity analyst at Morningstar, told me. “Electric equipment is crucial to data centers, and we look forward to Maxson bringing more granularity to sourcing and planning Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI) future capacity expansion.” The company’s free cash flow should remain negative over the next few years, he added. “It is too early to talk about shareholder returns before OCI reaches a scale that contributes positively to Oracle’s cash flows.”
Maxson is becoming CFO as Oracle builds “significant momentum at the intersection of cloud, AI, and industry applications,” she said in a statement. She will receive a $950,000 base salary and be eligible for a performance-based bonus targeting $2.5 million, according to an SEC filing.
Last month, Oracle (No. 87 on the Fortune 500) reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $17.19 billion, exceeding estimates. For its fiscal year (FY) 2026, the company expects revenue of $67 billion and capital expenditures of $50 billion. For FY 2027, it raised its total revenue guidance to $90 billion. Growth was driven by OCI, even as Oracle takes on significant debt to expand its AI infrastructure.
To fund these investments, Oracle’s debt has climbed past $100 billion, Fortune reported. It also plans to raise $45 billion to $50 billion through a mix of debt and equity, including a $20 billion equity program and bond issuance, while implementing workforce reductions to free up capital.
Maxson’s mandate goes beyond allocating capital—it centers on whether Oracle can scale its AI ambitions without overextending its balance sheet. Sheryl Estrada [email protected]
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