Oracle has $664 billion of RPO and expects about 13% of it as revenue within a year. RPO, deferred revenue and backlog: three numbers that are not revenue.

Every figure below was read from the companies' own filings on sec.gov and is cited with its accession: Oracle's first-quarter fiscal 2027 10-Q, Microsoft's FY2026 10-K, CoreWeave's second-quarter 10-Q, release and investor presentation, Alphabet's and Amazon's second-quarter 10-Qs, Micron's FY2026 10-K and Meta's third-quarter 10-Q. We show no analyst estimates and no consensus, because they are not filed. Twelve-month and 24-month amounts, ratios and differences that the companies do not print are our arithmetic on filed values and are marked (Ours.) Research, not investment advice.

Oracle's 10-Q for the quarter to 31 August 2026 (0001193125-26-389274) reports total revenues of $19,345 million. Its revenue note reports this:

Remaining performance obligations were $664 billion as of August 31, 2026, of which we expect to recognize approximately 13% as revenues over the next twelve months, 37% over the subsequent month 13 to month 36, 34% over the subsequent month 37 to month 60 and the remainder thereafter.

The quarter's revenue is a fact about the past. The $664 billion is a contract book: what customers have signed for and Oracle has not yet delivered. (Ours.) About $86 billion of it falls in the next twelve months; the other 87% is spread over years two to five and beyond, with 16% after month 60.

Three numbers in large tech filings describe revenue that has not happened yet: remaining performance obligations, deferred revenue and "backlog". They overlap, and none of them is revenue. Here is what each measures, read from six filings, and five checks for reading any of them.

What are remaining performance obligations (RPO)?

RPO is the accounting name for contracted revenue not yet recognised. CoreWeave's 10-Q (0001769628-26-000366) defines it:

RPO represents the aggregate amount of the transaction price, net of estimated variable consideration, allocated to performance obligations not delivered, or partially undelivered, as of the end of the reporting period.

"Net of estimated variable consideration" means CoreWeave deducts expected service credits, delivery delays and capacity it "has the right to resell": RPO is already an estimate. And the next sentence: "RPO includes both billed and unbilled consideration from the Company's committed contracts." Some of it has been invoiced, most of it has not.

Microsoft's FY2026 10-K (0001193125-26-323660) uses the same idea in its own words: revenue allocated to remaining performance obligations "includes unearned revenue and amounts expected to be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods". It was $684 billion at 30 June 2026, of which $678 billion was commercial.

The figures as filed:

The dates differ by up to ten weeks, and neither the timing columns nor the perimeters are on one basis. A sum of the column is a number none of these companies filed.

What is deferred revenue, and how is it different from RPO?

Deferred revenue (Microsoft and Amazon call it unearned revenue) is the part of RPO that has already been billed or paid but not yet earned. It is a liability on the balance sheet. RPO is a note disclosure, and most of it is not on the balance sheet at all.

Microsoft's numbers show the proportion. Unearned revenue was $75,712 million at 30 June 2026 (0001193125-26-323660), against RPO of $684 billion. (Ours: about 11%.) The other 89% is signed but not yet invoiced.

CoreWeave carries deferred revenue of $2,686 million current and $7,006 million non-current (0001769628-26-000366); the note sums it to "$9.7 billion", against $8.2 billion at the end of 2025. (Ours: $9,692 million, about 9% of the $103.7 billion RPO.)

Deferred revenue can move fast when customers prepay. Oracle's total deferred revenues were $30,789 million at 31 August 2026 against $15,395 million at 31 May (0001193125-26-389274). (Ours: up 100% in one quarter.) The 10-Q names the cause: "During the first quarter of fiscal 2027, we received $11.4 billion of prepayments from customers that included a significant financing component. No prepayments from customers that included a significant financing component were received during the first quarter of fiscal 2026." Oracle says it recognises the interest on those prepayments "separately from revenue". Cash came in; the revenue has not.

Amazon gives the run-off: unearned revenue of $25.0 billion at 31 December 2025, "of which $15.2 billion was recognized as revenue during the six months ended June 30, 2026" (0001018724-26-000026). (Ours: about 61% in six months.)

A contract liability is not always future revenue. Micron's 10-K (0000723125-26-000023) says that of its roughly $134 billion of RPO, "$13 billion has been recognized as contract liabilities", which "primarily consisted of customer deposits associated with strategic customer agreements. Nearly all of the deposits are scheduled to be repaid between 2029 and 2031." A deposit scheduled to be repaid is a liability, not revenue in waiting. Our read of Micron's 10-K covers those deposits in detail.

What is "backlog", and why is CoreWeave's bigger than its RPO?

"Backlog" has no single accounting definition. Each company writes its own, so read the definition before the number.

CoreWeave's second-quarter release (0001769628-26-000362) says "Revenue backlog was approximately $104 billion as of June 30, 2026" and defines it: "Revenue backlog includes remaining performance obligations, plus other amounts we estimate will be recognized as revenue in future periods under committed customer contracts". Its September investor presentation (0001769628-26-000429, Exhibit 99.2) puts the figure at $104.2 billion. The 10-Q's RPO is $103.7 billion. (Ours: the "other amounts" come to about $0.5 billion, the gap between the presentation figure and the 10-Q figure.) The release adds that the backlog "Does not include more than $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in early Q3." Those are in neither number.

Alphabet uses the same word for the GAAP figure: "$519.5 billion of remaining performance obligations (“revenue backlog”)" (0001652044-26-000071). Here backlog and RPO are one number. But Alphabet moved the perimeter this year: "In the first quarter of 2026, we elected to change our reporting of revenue backlog to also include contracts with an original expected term of one year or less."

That sentence matters because companies may leave short contracts out. Micron does, and calls it a practical expedient: "As a practical expedient, we have excluded contracts that have an original term of one year or less from remaining performance obligations." Amazon's figure is limited the same way: "For contracts with original terms that exceed one year, those commitments not yet recognized were approximately $496 billion." Amazon does not use the phrase "remaining performance obligations" in the 10-Q at all. Oracle leaves out a different slice: it has "elected the optional exemption to not disclose the variable consideration for contracts in which the variable consideration expected to be received over the duration of the contract is allocated entirely to the wholly unsatisfied performance obligations" (0001193125-26-389274). Consideration of that kind is outside the $664 billion.

So "backlog" can be wider than RPO (CoreWeave), equal to it (Alphabet) or replaced by a differently named figure with a narrower perimeter (Amazon).

What is cRPO, and how do I work it out when it is not filed?

Current RPO, or cRPO, is the slice of RPO expected within twelve months. Some software companies report it as a separate metric. None of the six filings in this post prints a cRPO figure; the phrase does not appear in any of them. What they do print is a timing sentence, and the slice is multiplication (Ours throughout):

Two of the windows are 24 months, not 12. A 24-month slice set beside a 12-month one is not a comparison.

Set the slice against reported revenue. (Ours.) Microsoft's twelve-month slice of about $205 billion compares with FY2026 total revenue of $331,839 million (10-K 0001193125-26-323660), about 62% of it. Oracle's twelve-month slice of about $86 billion compares with $19,345 million in the quarter just reported. CoreWeave's 24-month slice of about $42.5 billion compares with $4,653 million of revenue in the first half of 2026 (0001769628-26-000366).

Duration matters too. Microsoft's commercial RPO carries "a weighted average duration of approximately 2.3 years"; Amazon's long-term contracts have a weighted-average remaining life of 6.4 years; Oracle puts 16% beyond month 60 (Ours: 100 − 13 − 37 − 34).

Why do filings say RPO is "not indicative of future revenue"?

Because the number rests on assumptions the company states next to it. Micron's 10-K is explicit:

Our remaining performance obligations are based on expected purchases to satisfy committed volumes and minimum pricing and are not expected to be indicative of future revenue under these contracts.

Its contracts are take-or-pay agreements with pricing "subject to minimum and maximum bands"; the RPO is built on committed volumes and minimum pricing. Micron also excludes "agreements from our remaining performance obligations that do not have either fixed pricing or price bands". It is a measure of contractual minimums, not a revenue forecast.

The others name their own conditions:

• CoreWeave (0001769628-26-000362): backlog is recognised "subject to the satisfaction of delivery and availability of service requirements". Capacity has to be built and kept running.
• Microsoft (0001193125-26-323660): estimating it "can involve significant judgments, including identifying and assessing variable consideration and potential renegotiation of commitments".
• Amazon (0001018724-26-000026): timing "will be driven by customer usage and our performance in accordance with contractual obligations, which can extend beyond the original contractual duration and commitment".
• Alphabet (0001652044-26-000071): the figure "excludes cancellable contracts".

The qualifying sentence says what has to happen for the book to become revenue.

Why doesn't Meta report one?

Meta's third-quarter 10-Q (0001628280-26-066773), filed on 22 October, contains neither "remaining performance obligation" nor "backlog". What it does carry is the other side of such contracts: "$454.52 billion of non-cancelable contractual commitments", which "mostly relate to third-party cloud capacity arrangements and investments in servers and network infrastructure". That is what Meta has agreed to pay, not what it will be paid. See our Meta read-back.

The five checks, in one place

1. Find the note, not the release. RPO sits in the notes of the 10-Q or 10-K. A release may round it, as CoreWeave's "approximately $104 billion" does, or label it differently.
2. Read the definition. RPO, "revenue backlog" and "commitments not yet recognized" can each include or exclude short contracts and "other amounts". Alphabet changed its perimeter in Q1 2026.
3. Split billed from unbilled. Deferred revenue on the balance sheet is the billed part. Watch for prepayments (Oracle's $11.4 billion) and deposits that will be repaid (Micron's $13 billion).
4. Compute the slice and keep the window. Multiply the timing percentage by the total, mark it as your arithmetic, and do not mix 12-month and 24-month figures.
5. Quote the qualifier. The "not indicative" or "subject to delivery" sentence is part of the number.

For what these books add up to across the AI build-out, see our order-books post; for a company whose debt is set against its RPO, our CoreWeave post.

Run it yourself

Open /filings/ORCL, go to the August 10-Q and search "Remaining performance obligations" for the timing sentence, then "Total deferred revenues" for the billed part. Then open /filings/MSFT, go to the 10-K and read Note 12, where unearned revenue and the $684 billion sit in the same note.

In the DCF calculator, take the near-term revenue path from the filed timing sentence, not the headline total. Our Thesis Monitor reads each new filing against what you wrote down, so put the RPO, the twelve-month percentage and the definition in the thesis. If you work inside an agent, the same filings are on the EvidInvest MCP server. It is free to start, credit packs from $10, and there is no subscription.

A contract book tells you what has been signed. The timing sentence tells you when it can become revenue, and the sentence after it tells you what has to happen first.

Sources. Oracle Corporation Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 31 August 2026: accession 0001193125-26-389274 (sec.gov). Microsoft Corporation FY2026 Form 10-K: 0001193125-26-323660 (sec.gov). CoreWeave, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026: 0001769628-26-000366 (sec.gov); Q2 2026 release, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K: 0001769628-26-000362 (sec.gov); investor presentation, Exhibit 99.2 to Form 8-K of 17 September 2026: 0001769628-26-000429 (sec.gov). Alphabet Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026: 0001652044-26-000071 (sec.gov). Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026: 0001018724-26-000026 (sec.gov). Micron Technology FY2026 Form 10-K: 0000723125-26-000023 (sec.gov). Meta Platforms Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026: 0001628280-26-066773 (sec.gov). EDGAR was checked on 25 October 2026; no newer 10-Q or 10-K had been filed by Microsoft, Oracle, Alphabet, Amazon, Micron or CoreWeave. No analyst estimate, consensus figure, share price, price target or call remark appears on this page. Twelve- and 24-month slices, ratios, sums and differences are arithmetic on those filed values, labelled as ours where they appear. Research, not investment advice.