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Oracle's record-breaking surge shows AI's growing influence in the market

Wall Street's AI trade has driven the market to new highs in 2018. Oracle's share price gains have given investors yet another reason to support the trade.

Oracle shares rose 36% Wednesday, after the company cited a surge in demand from AI firms to use its cloud services. This surge boosted its market value from $822 billion to $922.25 billion, surpassing Walmart WMT.N, JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, and Eli Lilly LLY.N.

Oracle, Broadcom and Palantir have all seen gains this year, despite some pullbacks due to fears that the rally was becoming too hot.

The "Magnificent 7" megacap trade, which led stocks higher during this bull market for most of the time, has faltered this year due to the decline in Apple and Tesla shares.

Peter Tuz of Chase Investment Counsel, Charlottesville, Virginia, said: "When people began to worry about AI and infrastructure growth slowing, Oracle came out with a number which surprised everyone and fuelled the fire of this whole subgroup." This is a sign that the AI industry as a whole has taken the lead in terms of equity markets.

Oracle has become one of Wall Street’s 10 most valuable corporations. Nvidia is a leader in AI as are Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon.

Nvidia, the AI chip giant, became the most valuable company ever in 2018. It surpassed Microsoft and Apple, who many investors believe are lagging behind in the race for dominating emerging AI technology.

Nvidia stock has dropped about 2% in price since the company's uninspiring forecast of August 27. However, its market value is still $4.3 trillion at Wednesday's closing.

Investors have begun to show caution about the AI market, which has led to a stabilization of tech shares. The technology sector has risen by more than 16% in 2025.

Oracle's stock market value of $922 billion following Wednesday's surge is just behind Berkshire Hathaway, at $1.06 trillion. Tesla, on the other hand, has a $1.12 trillion valuation.

Oracle announced four multi-billion dollar contracts on Tuesday. It took advantage of a shift in industry spending led by OpenAI and xAI to spend aggressively to secure the massive computational capacity required for the AI race.

Oracle, Broadcom and other AI-related companies now account for almost 30% of S&P 500.

AI-related companies have also contributed the most to the recent gains of the benchmark index.

According to LSEG data, gains in shares of Nvidia and Microsoft, Broadcom, Meta Platforms Alphabet, Amazon Palantir Technologies, Oracle, Broadcom and Meta Platforms have accounted together for about half of S&P 500’s 11% rise so far in 2025.

Apple is the only exception. In the last five trading days, nine out of the 10 Wall Street companies that were most actively traded on Wall Street had AI as a common theme. Nvidia tops the list with $29 billion in average daily trades, according to LSEG.

The AI stock craze has expanded beyond the tech sector, with shares in utilities and power equipment companies soaring. These companies will be required to meet the exploding energy demand that is needed to fuel this technology.

AI-driven excitement has helped non-tech stocks such as GE Vernova, Constellation Energy, Vistra and the industrial firm GE Vernova to make massive gains over the last year.

AI's enthusiasm has helped to drive the U.S. Stock market's valuation above historic levels. According to LSEG Datastream, the S&P 500 trades at more than 22 times expected earnings for its constituents. This is its highest valuation since four years. This compares with an average P/E ratio of 18.6 over the past decade.

According to LSEG Datastream, the forward P/E of Tech has risen to 28 times its 10-year average.

Oracle stock is up by nearly twofold year-to date after Wednesday's price surge. Other large tech stocks are also experiencing huge increases. Palantir's shares had surged 120% by 2025, while Broadcom was up nearly 60%.

Chuck Carlson is the chief executive officer of Horizon Investment Services, based in Hammond, Indiana. He said, "I was surprised by the size of the Oracle jump. It shows that the AI industry still has a great deal of life and money to invest."

(source: Reuters)