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Oracle Corp. shares surged to a record high in extended trading after the company posted a major increase in bookings and gave an aggressive outlook for its cloud infrastructure business.
Known for its database software, Oracle has recently found success in the competitive cloud computing market. Earlier this summer, it inked an unprecedented commitment with OpenAI for 4.5 gigawatts’ worth of data center capacity — enough energy to power millions of American homes.
Such deals helped boost remaining performance obligations — a measure of bookings — to $455 billion at the end of the fiscal first quarter, Oracle said in a statement Tuesday. That’s more than four times higher than the same period a year earlier.
The shares soared more than 26% in extended trading after closing at $241.51 in New York. If those gains hold during regular market hours, it will surpass the last record high of $256.43 set on Aug. 6. Oracle’s stock was up 45% this year through Tuesday’s close, four times the gain seen in the S&P 500.
Recent and upcoming bookings will translate to a rapidly expanding cloud infrastructure business over the coming years, Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said in the statement. That unit will expand 77% to $18 billion this fiscal year and continue to grow at an aggressive clip, reaching $144 billion in annual revenue by the fiscal year ending in May 2030, she said. The outlook exceeded Wall Street estimates.
“It was an astonishing quarter,” and demand for Oracle cloud infrastructure continues to build, Catz said. The company signed four multibillion-dollar contracts with three different customers in the quarter and expects to sign up several additional customers in the coming months, she added, pushing remaining performance obligations above $500 billion.
The company is implementing more AI internally, which should help improve operating income, Catz said. Oracle has cut hundreds of workers in layoffs in recent months.
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