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Oracle Stock Soars on AI Cloud Deals as Ellison Nears Musk in Wealth Rankings

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Oracle shares rocketed nearly 43% to a record high on Wednesday, putting the software giant within reach of the $1 trillion market cap club. The surge comes after Oracle unveiled four multi-billion-dollar contracts, positioning itself as a rising force in the global AI cloud race.

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI has signed a staggering $300 billion contract with Oracle for computing power over five years — one of the largest cloud deals ever inked. Most of Oracle’s newly announced revenue gains stem from this partnership, analysts said.

The stock hit a high of $345.69, set for its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1992. If momentum holds, Oracle will add $234 billion in market value, bringing it to about $913 billion. Shares are already up 45% this year, outperforming the Magnificent Seven tech stocks and the broader S&P 500.

Ellison Closes in on Musk

The rally boosted co-founder Larry Ellison’s net worth by nearly $100 billion, to $392.6 billion, according to Forbes. Ellison, 81, is now within striking distance of Elon Musk, whose wealth stands at $439.9 billion.

AI Cloud Momentum

Oracle’s cloud business has seen explosive growth thanks to partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet, which now allow customers to run Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) alongside their native services. Revenue from these collaborations rose 16-fold in Q1.

CEO Safra Catz told investors: “Over the next few months, we expect to sign up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers, and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

Oracle is also a participant in Stargate, the $500 billion AI infrastructure project backed by SoftBank and OpenAI, which analysts say could provide revenues well into the next decade.

Market Impact

The earnings also lifted semiconductor suppliers Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD, whose shares climbed 2–8% on expectations of higher demand for data center chips. Rival CoreWeave saw its stock jump about 15%.

With Oracle trading at 33.34x forward earnings, it now commands a valuation premium over Amazon (32.34x) and Microsoft (30.83x), underscoring how investors see its AI-driven growth story as one of the strongest in tech.

Senator Wyden Urges FTC Probe Into Microsoft Over Cybersecurity Failures

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U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Microsoft for what he described as “gross cybersecurity negligence” that he says poses an ongoing threat to U.S. national security.

In a September 10 letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Wyden accused Microsoft of creating vulnerabilities that have led to ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, including health care organizations. He argued that Microsoft’s default Windows configurations and continued support for outdated encryption standards have left customers exposed.

Wyden compared the company to “an arsonist selling firefighting services,” saying its dominance in enterprise IT leaves agencies and firms with “no choice” but to use its products despite the risks.

The Ascension Case

Wyden highlighted the May 2024 ransomware attack on Ascension, a major U.S. hospital operator, as a prime example. Hackers reportedly exploited a contractor’s laptop after a malicious link appeared through Microsoft’s Bing search engine, eventually breaching Ascension’s Active Directory server and exposing the data of 5.6 million people.

Wyden said Microsoft’s default encryption settings — particularly support for the outdated RC4 standard — facilitated the attack.

Microsoft’s Response

Microsoft acknowledged that RC4 is insecure but stressed it makes up “less than 0.1% of traffic.” The company said it discourages use of RC4 but cannot yet fully disable it because “disabling its use completely would break many customer systems.”

The company pledged to disable RC4 by default in certain Windows products starting Q1 2026 and to roll out additional mitigations.

Broader Context

Wyden has repeatedly urged scrutiny of Microsoft’s role in cyber incidents, including the July 2023 breach by Chinese-linked hackers who stole thousands of U.S. officials’ emails.

The FTC confirmed receipt of Wyden’s letter but offered no further comment.

The senator’s push comes amid broader concerns that the monopoly-like grip of Microsoft on enterprise IT both amplifies security risks and limits customers’ ability to choose safer alternatives.

U.S. Data Center Construction Hits Record $40 Billion Amid AI Boom

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Construction spending on U.S. data centers hit a record $40 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in June, according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute. The surge reflects the massive capital pouring into AI infrastructure by major technology companies.

By the Numbers

The $40 billion figure represents a 30% jump from last year, following an even steeper 50% surge in 2024, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

Why It Matters

The explosive growth of generative AI and machine learning has triggered an unprecedented demand for computing power. Tech giants including Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are investing billions to expand their hyperscale data centers, enabling them to run AI workloads at scale. This infrastructure boom has also fueled record sales for Nvidia, whose GPUs power much of the AI ecosystem and now account for the bulk of its revenue.

Key Quotes

“Hyperscalers are a big part of the increased demand for power, but they’re not the whole picture,” Bank of America Institute economists led by Liz Everett Krisberg noted.
They emphasized that much of the projected growth in U.S. electricity demand through 2030 will also come from EV adoption, industrial reshoring, building electrification, and heating systems — highlighting how AI-driven infrastructure is just one force in a broader energy transformation.