Oracle Corporation's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, discloses remaining performance obligations of $638 billion, compared with $138 billion as of May 31, 2025. Remaining performance obligations, often described as contracted backlog, represent the value of signed customer contracts for which Oracle has not yet recognized revenue. The figure is a balance-sheet-adjacent disclosure, not a revenue or earnings line, and it does not by itself indicate when or whether the contracted amounts will convert to cash.

The year-over-year change is roughly 4.6 times the prior balance. In the management's discussion and analysis section of the filing, Oracle states that the increase was primarily attributable to certain significant cloud contracts that were entered into during the period. The filing does not name the counterparties to those contracts in the passage that discusses the backlog change, and it directs readers to Note 1 of the consolidated financial statements for additional detail on the company's remaining performance obligations.

"As of May 31, 2026, our remaining performance obligations were $638 billion, of which we expect to recognize approximately 12% as revenues over the next twelve months, 34% over the subsequent month 13 to month 36, 34% over the subsequent month 37 to month 60 and the remainder thereafter."— Oracle Corporation, Form 10-K (FY2026), source

The recognition schedule disclosed in the filing places the bulk of the backlog beyond the coming year. By Oracle's own breakdown, approximately 12% of the $638 billion is expected to be recognized as revenue over the next twelve months, which implies a near-term tranche on the order of $77 billion against a balance whose remaining roughly 88% is scheduled across later periods. The company states that 34% is expected over months 13 through 36, another 34% over months 37 through 60, and the remainder thereafter. The disclosure means a large share of the reported backlog is tied to contracts whose revenue is contemplated several years out, subject to the timing of delivery, customer behavior, foreign exchange movements, and other factors the company describes elsewhere in the report.

How the backlog relates to reported revenue

Separately from the backlog disclosure, Oracle's income-statement narrative reports that total revenues increased by $10.0 billion in reported currency in fiscal 2026 relative to fiscal 2025. The filing attributes that change to a $9.3 billion increase in cloud and software revenues, a $510 million increase in services revenues, and a $148 million increase in hardware revenues. The company states that the increase in its cloud and software business revenues was primarily due to growth in cloud revenues as customers purchased and renewed applications and infrastructure technologies. Cloud and software accounted for 87% of total revenues in the period, per the segment-mix table in the filing, with hardware at 5% and services at 8%.

The gap between the size of the backlog and the size of the annual revenue increase is the disclosure worth holding in view. A $638 billion contracted balance is more than an order of magnitude larger than the $9.3 billion year-over-year change in cloud and software revenue and large relative to the company's total annual revenue. Backlog is a forward measure of contracted commitments, while revenue is a recognized, period-bound figure; the two are not interchangeable, and the filing's recognition schedule is the bridge between them. The company also notes in the report that the timing of booking large contracts, together with seasonal patterns and foreign exchange fluctuations, influences how remaining performance obligations change over time and the amount reported at any point in time.

Oracle's filing further states that cloud and software expenses have grown in recent periods and that it expects this trend to continue during fiscal 2027 and in the next few fiscal years as it increases existing data center capacity and establishes data centers in new geographic locations. The report describes a $34.4 billion item within investing activities and states that net cash used for investing activities increased by $30.1 billion in fiscal 2026 relative to fiscal 2025. Read alongside the backlog disclosure, these passages place the contracted commitments next to the capacity the company says it is building to service cloud demand, though the filing does not draw a direct line between any specific contract and any specific facility.

Controls and the rest of the report

On internal controls, the filing states that, based on the results of management's evaluation, management concluded that the company's internal control over financial reporting was effective as of May 31, 2026, and that the company's principal executive officers and principal financial officer concluded that disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of the same date. The report notes that the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting was also subject to attestation by the company's independent registered public accounting firm, consistent with the requirements for an accelerated filer of Oracle's size.

The 10-K also documents Oracle's research-and-development spending, reporting that the company invested $10.3 billion in research and development in fiscal 2026, compared with $9.9 billion in fiscal 2025 and $8.9 billion in fiscal 2024. The filing frames continued investment in research and development and cloud operations as a use of the margin generated by its cloud and software business, and it identifies expected growth in cloud offerings and continued demand for software offerings as factors the company believes should contribute to future growth in cloud and software revenues.

For readers tracking the disclosure rather than the narrative around it, the operative facts are these: the contracted backlog stands at $638 billion as of May 31, 2026, up from $138 billion a year earlier; the company attributes the increase to significant cloud contracts signed in the period; about 12% of the balance is scheduled for revenue recognition within twelve months; cloud and software revenue rose $9.3 billion year over year; and management reported its internal control over financial reporting effective as of the fiscal year-end. Each of those figures is stated in the filing itself, and the recognition timetable Oracle provides is the company's own framework for how the backlog is expected to convert over the next five years and beyond.