Dive Brief:

• Oracle announced Monday that Hilary Maxson, an alum of Schneider Electric, has stepped in as its new CFO effective Monday, according to a press release and securities filing Monday.
• Maxson, 48, will also succeed Doug Kehring as Oracle’s principal financial officer, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kehring, who will return to his role as EVP of operations also as of the effective date, has served in the previous capacity since September, when long-time Oracle veteran Safra Catz stepped down from both the CEO and principal financial officer roles and the business appointed Clayton Magouyrk and Michael Sicilia as co-CEOs, according to an SEC filing at the time.
• The Austin, Texas-based cloud technology provider founded by Larry Ellison will rely on Maxson’s financial expertise as Oracle aggressively ramps up its AI spending as it looks to finance expansion of its data centers. “We are pleased that we found a financial leader that matches our culture of strong financial and operational discipline and has experience scaling capital intensive global organizations,” Magouyrk said in a statement included in the Monday press release. “Hilary’s experience spans industrial, infrastructure, and software businesses — sectors where capital intensity and execution excellence are critical to success.”

Dive Insight: 

Maxson has served as CFO for energy technology company Schneider Electric for six years, after joining the business in 2017 as its SVP of finance and CFO, building and IT, according to her LinkedIn profile. Previously, she served in various roles for the AES Corporation during an 11-year career at the energy company, including CFO of its Asia segment. She also currently serves as a non-executive director for mining firm Anglo American.

As Oracle’s CFO, Maxson is set to receive an annual base salary of $950,000, according to the SEC filing. She will also be eligible to receive an annual performance bonus with a target of $2.5 million, “based on achievement of certain performance metrics,” according to the filing.

She is also set to receive an equity grant with an intended grant value of $26 million, $20.8 million in time-based equity — comprised of Maxson’s choice of either 100% stock options, or 50% stock options and 50% restricted stock units, per the filing. The remaining 20% or $5.2 million of the grant will consist of performance-based equity, with the time-based grant to vest over four years and the performance-based portion to vest over three years.

“Oracle has built extraordinary momentum at the intersection of cloud, AI, and industry applications,” Maxson said in a statement included in the press release. “I’m excited to join at this pivotal moment, and I look forward to partnering with Clay, Mike, and the broader leadership team to continue to invest with discipline and to translate this momentum into durable, long‑term value for customers and shareholders.”

Maxson will take Oracle’s financial reins as the business seeks to continue that momentum. In February, the business announced plans to raise up to $50 billion in debt and equity financing with the aim of expanding its cloud infrastructure business to support accelerating demand from clients in the generative AI space, including Nvidia, OpenAI and Meta, according to a press release at the time.

Leadership also detailed their plans to continue optimizing that infrastructure during its latest earnings call on March 10, with Magouyrk noting AI infrastructure revenue for Oracle’s third quarter grew by 243% year-over-year.

Demand for AI infrastructure, including data centers and graphic processing units, has continued to overtake supply: something which is “directly visible” in the $553 billion in remaining performance obligations the business recorded for the quarter, he said. The figure, a 325% jump YoY according to its earnings release, represents contracted but not yet recorded revenue.

Oracle has “continued to innovate” across its data centers, including its compute, networking and storage capacities as it looks to turn those obligations into recorded revenue, Magouyrk said.

However, the company’s aggressive AI spending pace has also drawn some concerns from its stakeholders and industry experts. The company’s stock price has slumped by approximately 24% year-to-date amid fears of a potential AI bubble as well as worries on its expanding debt, the Motley Fool reported.

Oracle is also one among several companies conducting mass layoffs in the face of an AI spending spree. Beginning on March 31, the company began sending out severance emails to thousands of employees as part of a larger organizational restructuring, according to a NextWeb report. The layoffs could potentially affect 18% of Oracle’s global workforce, or 30,000 employees, the news outlet said.

Oracle did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Maxson’s appointment.