This article compares Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL) for long-term investors: Microsoft relies on its broad ecosystem including Azure and its partnership with OpenAI, while Oracle is moving legacy clients to its cloud infrastructure. Over the trailing 12 months, Microsoft reported revenue of about $332 billion (up about 18%), net income of about $134 billion, free cash flow of about $67 billion and a debt-to-equity ratio of nearly 0.1x. Oracle reported revenue of nearly $72 billion (up about 22%) and net income of about $18.7 billion, but negative free cash flow of $28 billion from heavy data center spending, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.3x. The article concludes that Microsoft is the safer choice, while Oracle carries higher risk but offers more upside, given its debt load and dependence on AI demand.
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