The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that Oracle became the poster child for excessive debt-fuelled artificial-intelligence spending last fall and its shares plunged nearly 60 per cent before bottoming in April. Guest columnist Amber Kanwar writes that since then, the stock has surged more than 50 per cent, but with the company's quarterly results set for Wednesday, questions are still swirling about whether Oracle can keep pace with data centre buildouts and its ability to finance them. To address financing concerns, Oracle announced in April it is laying off 18 per cent of its work force. The company's partnership with OpenAI, once viewed as a key strength, may now be a liability. "Questions remain around OpenAI's competitive positioning and implications for Oracle as its primary infrastructure partner," RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria wrote. He observed that Oracle traded down on reports of OpenAI missing internal revenue targets in late April. "On the call, we will be looking for commentary on customer diversification within the [Infrastructure-as-a-Service] backlog," Mr. Jaluria said.