Oracle Edges Closer to the $1 Trillion Club as Tech Stocks Rally

Oracle (ORCL.N) shares surged on Thursday, building on a record-breaking performance in the previous session and fueling gains across the technology sector. Driven by rising profits from its AI-powered cloud business, the enterprise software giant is inching closer to joining the prestigious $1 trillion market capitalization club.

Oracle’s impressive growth, spurred by multibillion-dollar cloud contracts, highlights the intense competition for computing power as companies invest billions to lead the AI race. The stock’s rally has also put co-founder Larry Ellison on a trajectory to overtake Elon Musk as the world’s richest person.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, commented, “Oracle has breathed new life into the AI business.” He added that the company’s multibillion-dollar demand environment has created a “ripple effect” across AI-related stocks.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on Wednesday that OpenAI struck a $300 billion computing power deal with Oracle—one of the largest agreements in history. A significant portion of the new revenue Oracle announced on Tuesday is believed to be linked to this deal.

Oracle’s shares, which climbed as much as 35.9% on Wednesday, were up 2% in premarket trading, lifting the company’s market cap to a record $933 billion based on the last closing price.

Ellison’s net worth jumped by nearly $100 billion to $392.6 billion, thanks largely to his 41% stake in Oracle. Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk, with a net worth of $439.9 billion, remains at the top of Forbes’ global wealth rankings.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O), key suppliers of semiconductors used in data centers, also rose modestly, extending gains from the previous session. Asian tech peers recorded similar upward momentum.

Oracle’s stock is trading at a premium compared to its cloud service rivals, with a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 45.3, compared to 31.3 for both Amazon and Microsoft.