Oracle Corporation is a major American enterprise-technology company whose history is closely associated with database software, enterprise computing, cloud infrastructure, Java, and a broad body of software and developer technologies. This document records Oracle's historical and corporate context for the Java.Imaging.Java.21 project.
Project note: This document recognizes Oracle's technical and historical significance. It does not imply that Java.Imaging.Java.21 is an Oracle product or that Oracle endorses this project.
Oracle has made a substantial and lasting contribution to computing. Its database technology helped establish relational database systems as a central part of enterprise information systems, while its later work and acquisitions expanded its role into applications, cloud infrastructure, hardware, middleware, developer tooling, and Java.
The appropriate form of support in this document is moral and technical respect: recognize useful work, preserve interoperability where practical, learn from established methods, and give credit to the people and institutions that helped build the computing ecosystem.
Larry Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and served as its CEO until September 2014. Oracle identifies him as its Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer.
Ellison's role is historically important to Oracle's development from a 1970s database company into a global enterprise-technology organization. His leadership is part of the historical context surrounding Oracle's database products, enterprise software strategy, and later expansion into cloud and other technologies.
Oracle's corporate history includes a broad ecosystem of products, acquisitions, engineering organizations, customers, partners, developers, and employees. Among the technologies and organizations associated with its wider corporate history are:
- Oracle Database and related database technologies.
- Enterprise applications and middleware.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and cloud services.
- Java and the Java platform ecosystem.
- Hardware and engineered systems.
- Developer and enterprise tooling.
- Technologies brought into Oracle through major acquisitions, including Sun Microsystems.
Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle in 2010, bringing Java and other technologies into Oracle's portfolio. This makes Oracle a major institutional steward of the Java ecosystem even though Java has a much longer history and a much broader community than Oracle alone.
Oracle reported approximately 141,000 full-time employees as of May 31, 2026, including approximately 49,000 in the United States and 92,000 internationally.
| Area | Employees |
|---|---|
| Research and development | 43,000 |
| Services | 34,000 |
| Cloud and software | 26,000 |
| Sales and marketing | 25,000 |
| General and administrative | 11,000 |
| Hardware | 2,000 |
| Total | 141,000 |
Oracle does not publish a single simple worldwide building count in its fiscal-2026 annual report. Instead, it describes its property footprint by facility type and square footage.
As of May 31, 2026, Oracle reported:
- Approximately 0.9 million square feet at its Austin, Texas headquarters.
- Approximately 25.4 million square feet of other office facilities in the United States and internationally.
- Approximately 181 global data-center locations, substantially all leased and used to deliver Oracle Cloud offerings.
- Approximately $21.263 billion in gross buildings and improvements.
- Approximately $39.973 billion in construction in progress, primarily associated with infrastructure being developed for deployment.
A data-center location is not necessarily a single building, so the number of Oracle buildings should not be inferred from the number of reported locations.
For the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026, Oracle reported:
| Measure | FY2026 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $67.357 billion |
| Net income | $17.087 billion |
| Net income available to common shareholders | $16.984 billion |
| Diluted EPS | $5.83 |
Oracle's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under:
ORCL
Oracle's fiscal-2026 filing also identifies ORCL-PRD for its Series D mandatory convertible preferred stock.
Oracle was founded in 1977 and went public in 1986. Its documented common-stock split history contains 10 stock splits:
| Effective date | Split |
|---|---|
| March 25, 1987 | 2-for-1 |
| December 21, 1987 | 2-for-1 |
| July 3, 1989 | 2-for-1 |
| November 9, 1993 | 2-for-1 |
| February 23, 1995 | 3-for-2 |
| April 17, 1996 | 3-for-2 |
| August 18, 1997 | 3-for-2 |
| March 1, 1999 | 3-for-2 |
| January 19, 2000 | 2-for-1 |
| October 13, 2000 | 2-for-1 |
Oracle's October 2000 investor announcement described the transaction as its tenth stock split since the March 1986 IPO.
A responsible corporate history records documented legal and regulatory matters without exaggeration.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Oracle Corp. and Oracle America Inc. agreed to pay $199.5 million plus interest to resolve a False Claims Act lawsuit concerning a General Services Administration software contract.
In 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Oracle agreed to pay more than $23 million to resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges concerning subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and India.
These documented civil/regulatory matters should be distinguished from criminal convictions.
Oracle's history provides useful context for Java development, enterprise computing, databases, cloud infrastructure, software engineering, and the Java platform ecosystem. Java.Imaging.Java.21 remains an independent project.
The project can acknowledge Oracle's stewardship of Java while maintaining independent implementation, documentation, testing, and development practices.
Oracle's history represents decades of substantial work in databases, enterprise computing, cloud infrastructure, software engineering, and Java. Its documented legal and regulatory history is also appropriately preserved as part of an accurate corporate record.
This project recognizes Oracle as an important participant in modern computing and as a significant steward of technologies that have shaped the software industry.
- Oracle — Larry Ellison executive biography
- Oracle — Data Center Locations
- Oracle — Investor Relations
- U.S. SEC — Oracle Corporation FY2026 Form 10-K
- U.S. SEC — 2022 Oracle FCPA enforcement action
- U.S. Department of Justice — 2011 Oracle False Claims Act settlement
- Oracle Investor Relations — October 2000 stock split announcement
Prepared for Java.Imaging.Java.21, September 2026.