Oracle soars on AI cloud growth as customers race to secure computing capacity

Oracle shares rose about 40% on Wednesday after the company pointed to a demand surge for its cloud services from AI firms, underscoring its deeper push into the backbone of artificial intelligence systems.

The surge in Oracle’s cloud business reflects a broader shift in the industry, with companies such as OpenAI and xAI scrambling to secure massive computing capacity needed to stay ahead in the AI race by boosting spending to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

The stock was up 39.7%, hitting a record high of $339.69, set for its biggest one-day percentage jump since 1992.