(Reuters) - Oracle was sued on Wednesday by bondholders who say they suffered losses because the company chaired by billionaire Larry Ellison concealed its need to sell significant additional debt to build out its artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The proposed class action was filed in a New York state court in Manhattan on behalf of investors who said they bought $18 billion of senior notes and bonds that Oracle issued on September 25, shortly after the software and cloud computing company signed a $300 billion, five-year contract to supply Sam Altman's OpenAI with computing power.
These investors said they were blindsided when Austin, Texas-based Oracle returned to the capital markets seven weeks later to obtain $38 billion of loans to fund two data centers in Texas and Wisconsin to support the OpenAI agreement.
"The bond market's reaction to Oracle's additional debt was swift and bracing," the bondholders said, as their own debt fell in value and began trading at yields and spreads comparable to debt from lower-rated companies because of the perceived higher credit risk. Oracle's notes and bonds carried low investment grades.
Bondholders led by the Ohio Carpenters' Pension Plan said statements in offering documents for their bonds that Oracle "may" need to borrow more were false and misleading, because the company was already planning to do so.
The bondholders said Oracle, Ellison, former Chief Executive Safra Catz, Chief Accounting Officer Maria Smith and 16 underwriting banks are strictly liable under the federal Securities Act of 1933 for those statements, and should pay unspecified damages.
Oracle declined to comment. Lawyers for the bondholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Oracle ended November with about $108 billion of outstanding notes and other borrowings.
The company's shares were down 5% in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
By Jonathan Stempel
Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis
Editing by Nick Zieminski
