Safra Catz exits as Oracle CEO after 11 years
The executive who bet big on AI and cloud leaves behind a near-trillion-dollar company and two successors, Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, tasked with sustaining its momentum.
Oracle announced on Monday that Safra Catz, one of Silicon Valley’s most enduring executives, will step down as CEO after 11 years, in a move that reshapes the company’s leadership just as it nears a trillion-dollar valuation.
The company appointed Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs. Both are insiders: Magouyrk runs Oracle’s core cloud infrastructure business, while Sicilia oversees industry-specific applications and AI solutions. Catz, 62, will remain on the board as vice chair and continue to serve as a director.
The question for investors is whether Magouyrk and Sicilia can sustain the momentum Catz helped generate. Magouyrk, who joined from Amazon Web Services in 2014, will receive stock options worth $250 million, underscoring the weight of expectations on his shoulders. Sicilia, who entered Oracle through its acquisition of Primavera Systems, will receive $100 million in options.
Catz, an Israeli-American lawyer by training, was a rare constant in Silicon Valley’s volatile executive ranks. She joined Oracle’s leadership team in 1999, was named co-CEO in 2014, and became sole CEO in 2019. Alongside Ellison, she promoted a culture of long-term planning rooted in his 40% ownership stake, which she often contrasted with what she described as the “short-termism” of hired managers.
"Safra led Oracle as we became a hyperscale cloud powerhouse—clearly demonstrated by our recent results," said Ellison. "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."
"Today, Oracle is recognized as the cloud of choice for both AI training and inferencing. I'm very proud of that," said Catz. "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."
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The transition ends an era in which Catz, who joined Oracle in 1999, steered the enterprise software giant through a sweeping pivot to the cloud and helped secure some of the largest AI-driven contracts in the sector. She was widely credited with stabilizing Oracle after years in which Wall Street doubted its ability to compete with younger rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Catz’s tenure was defined by her ability to reposition Oracle as a serious contender in cloud computing. Under her leadership, the company signed long-term deals with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, AMD, TikTok, and Uber, among others. “Oracle has become the go-to place for AI workloads,” she told analysts earlier this month, pointing to record bookings of $455 billion.
That shift stunned investors, who had long viewed Oracle as a legacy software provider. Earlier this month, the company’s stock surged by more than 40% in a single day after projecting that cloud revenue would climb nearly tenfold over five years. At its peak, the rally briefly pushed founder Ellison ahead of Elon Musk as the world’s richest person.
