Oracle Corporation is making headlines once again — and this time, it’s all thanks to the surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) powered cloud services. On Thursday, the software giant saw its shares soar nearly 8% in premarket trading after raising its annual revenue forecast, signaling a bullish outlook for fiscal 2026.
In an earnings call that turned heads on Wall Street, Oracle CEO Safra Catz announced the company expects total revenue to hit at least $67 billion next fiscal year. The surge in demand for Oracle’s AI cloud offerings is driving this confidence. The company’s cloud services division posted a 14% year-over-year growth, reaching $11.7 billion in quarterly revenue, while total revenue climbed to $15.9 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $15.59 billion.
This bullish forecast and strong performance reflect how businesses are increasingly turning to Oracle’s cloud infrastructure to build and scale their AI capabilities. Earlier this year, Oracle partnered with OpenAI in a joint venture called Stargate, aimed at delivering high-powered computing solutions to support AI development.
This move helped rebrand Oracle’s image from a traditional software provider to a major contender in the AI cloud ecosystem. Michael Ashley Schulman, a partner at Running Point Capital Advisors, humorously described Oracle’s evolution: “Oracle’s once-stodgy image has now leveled up to a cloud-native mage.”
The company now competes in an increasingly crowded field of tech giants, where cloud computing resources have become the battlefield of choice. With Microsoft and Amazon leading the pack, Oracle is holding its own — and gaining traction. Despite a slower growth rate compared to Microsoft’s 12.16% stock increase this year, Oracle has outpaced Amazon, which has seen a 2.8% decline.
Oracle’s stock is currently trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 25.86, still trailing behind Microsoft (31.34) and Amazon (31.80). But that hasn’t dampened investor enthusiasm. Following the earnings report, at least nine major brokerages raised their price targets for Oracle, signaling growing confidence in the company’s AI-driven future.
Even amidst global trade uncertainties and potential tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, Oracle remains a beacon of optimism in the tech sector. Analysts from Piper Sandler noted that Oracle has entered a new wave of enterprise relevance not seen since the early days of the internet boom in the late 1990s.
With strong partnerships, a growing cloud business, and a clear focus on AI infrastructure, Oracle seems well-positioned to ride the next big wave in tech. For investors and tech enthusiasts alike, Oracle’s evolution from legacy software giant to AI cloud powerhouse is a story worth watching.
