Why Is Oracle Replacing Safra Catz With Co-CEOs?
Safra Catz, who has been the Oracle CEO for over a decade, has been no stranger to the news recently, most recently making headlines for her role in leading the cloud company into extraordinary demand for its services and that saw an increase of 36% in it stock price in September.
Shortly after that news, Oracle has announced that Safra has been appointed as the company's new Executive Vice Chair of the Board, with Clay Magouyrk and Mika Sicilia promoted to Chief Executive Officers.
Recognising the company’s impressive fiscal year 2026 Q1 results, which saw Oracle’s performance obligations up 359% and valued at US$244bn, Larry Ellison, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer, says: “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 continue our 26 year partnership, helping to guide Oracle’s direction, growth and success.”
Why is there a change of leadership?
Reflecting on her 11 year reign as CEO, Safra says: “Today, Oracle is recognised as the cloud of choice for both AI training and inference. I’m very proud of that.
“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.”
Two of Oracle's most experienced heads will take on the CEO responsibilities.
Clay Magouyuk, previously President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), is a founding member of Oracle’s cloud engineering team, previously responsible for overseeing the design, implementation and business success of Gen2 and OCI. Under his leadership, OCI has achieved unprecedented growth and has become the go-to platform for AI training and inference.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Gen2 is the company’s second-generation cloud platform. According to the company, it is “a high-performance, secure and cost-efficient solution that powers hyperscale public cloud datacentres and gigawatt-scale AI training data centres."
Alongside Clay will be Mike Sicilia, the former President of Oracle Industries.
He led Oracle’s engineering teams on their way to creating intent-based application generation, to replace traditional coding, and pioneered sets of AI Agents to the company’s industry application suites - covering areas such as healthcare, banking, communications and hospitality.
Larry says of the dual appointment: “Humanity is investing enormous resources in the race to advance Artificial Intelligence. 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. Mike has spent the last several years modernising Oracle’s Industry applications businesses by completely rebuilding those 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, and I am looking forward to spending the coming years working side-by-side with them. Oracle’s future is bright.”
Co-CEO structure
The appointment of co-CEOs reflects the company's previous leadership in 2014, when Larry stepped down as CEO after 37 years to become Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.
Following this move, Safra was named co-CEO alongside Mark Hurd, having joined Oracle in 1999 after a 13 year career in investment banking and becoming the company’s Finance Chief in 2005.
The co-CEO structure was effective during Oracle’s transformation from database licensing to cloud computing services. The partnership lasted until Mark’s death in 2019 when Safa was left as sole CEO during Oracle’s emergence as a cloud infrastructure provider.
AI powering Oracle’s cloud growth
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure under Clay’s leadership now handles what the company describes as gigawatt-scale AI training operations - driving much of Oracle’s recent growth.
In July, Oracle and OpenAI agreed to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional Stargate data centre capacity in the US, bringing total planned capacity to over five gigawatts capable of running two million AI chips.
Mike’s sophisticated AI agents designed to replace traditional coding methods, target regulated industries where compliance requirements often influence technology choices, potentially giving Oracle advantages over competitors with more generalised offerings.
Oracle meets TikTok
White House Officials have announced that Oracle will recreate and provide security for the US version of TikTok’s algorithm - part of a deal by President Donald Trump to take ownership of the American arm of the social media app.
This means that Oracle will receive a copy of the algorithm from ByteDance - its Chinese owner - which will then be rebuilt by the US company.
“Oracle will operate in partnership with the US government to ensure safety and data security across the entire TikTok platform - from source code review, to algorithm retraining, to application development and deployment,” the Financial Times reported a White House official as saying.
