Oracle plans to raise $45 billion (£33bn) to $50bn this year through debt and equity sales to finance building cloud infrastructure capacity, the company said, beginning with a $25bn US dollar bond offering on Monday.

The plan gave a clearer picture of how Oracle plans to finance its ambitious cloud plans, and highlighted the company’s commitment to maintaining its investment-grade debt rating, analysts said.

Up to $20bn of Oracle’s fundraising plan will come from sales of its shares at the market price, with the rest funded by the sale of bonds early in the year, Oracle said.

It said it does not expect to issue additional debt in the remainder of the year.

“We can see how the debt markets will likely be calmer post this transaction as the combination of extra equity and the mandatory convertible will reduce the debt needs and strengthen Oracle’s balance sheet,” said Barclays analysts in a note.

Oracle’s stock price rose up to 4 percent in early trading on Monday, after the plan’s disclosure on Sunday afternoon, before dipping again.

The company’s stock has dropped 50 percent from a September high, reflecting investors’ uncertainty as to how and when AI companies’ massive investments into the technology will turn into meaningful revenues.

Oracle is particularly heavily exposed to the AI bet, unlike players such as Google, Meta and Microsoft that have a more diverse revenue base, analysts have noted, making it a bellwether for sentiment around the AI sector.

The firm sold $18bn of bonds in September, in what was one of the year’s largest corporate bond offerings.

Oracle’s AI plans are heavily linked to OpenAI through a $300bn deal announced last September that sent Oracle’s stock price soaring.

Questions linger around OpenAI, which is loss-making but has committed to $1.5tn in infrastructure spending with Oracle and others.

Nvidia is reportedly reconsidering a plan to invest $100bn into OpenAI that was announced in September but was never finalised, although Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told reporters on a visit in Taipei that Nvidia would still invest a “great deal of money” into OpenAI’s next funding round.

Oracle said on Monday it was not affected by changes to OpenAI’s relationship with Nvidia, saying on social media that it remained “highly confident” in OpenAI’s ability to meet its commitments.

Oracle’s other AI customers include Meta and xAI.