"Supernova" performance ignites stock prices! Oracle's earnings report fuels Wall Street's AI aspirations, and Ellison's wealth surges to challenge Musk

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, after releasing quarterly results that far exceeded expectations, Oracle (ORCL.US) saw a historic surge in its stock price, which not only sparked positive reactions from analysts but also led to a significant increase in the personal wealth of its co-founder Larry Ellison.

“Nuclear-level” performance ignites stock price, analysts praise

On Wednesday, pre-market trading saw Oracle's stock price soar nearly 32%, marking the largest single-day increase since 1999. The key indicator driving the stock price was the astonishing growth of Oracle's "Remaining Performance Obligations" (RPO) — a metric that measures future revenue potential, which skyrocketed 359% year-on-year to reach $455 billion.

The Jefferies analyst team led by Brent Thill stated in a report: “RPO performed impressively in the first quarter, far exceeding market expectations, further confirming the trend of accelerating growth in Oracle's business.” The firm maintained a “Buy” rating on Oracle and raised its target price from $270 to $360.

Thill added that although Oracle's cloud business performance in the first fiscal quarter was slightly below expectations and the guidance for fiscal year 2026 was not adjusted, the long-term performance forecast appeared relatively conservative, with potential upward revisions expected in future analyst meetings.

Thill and his team noted: “Oracle's market capitalization increased by approximately $199 billion in after-hours trading, while its quarterly RPO increased by $317 billion quarter-on-quarter. This means that if Oracle can convert RPO into actual revenue, there is still room for further stock price increases.”

Evercore maintained an “Outperform” rating on Oracle and raised its target price from $270 to $340.

The analyst team led by Kirk Materne stated that although Oracle's overall performance in the first fiscal quarter was generally in line with expectations, the accelerated growth in backlog orders for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) was the core highlight of this earnings report, confirming the company's previous judgment that future revenue and earnings per share will accelerate.

The team pointed out: “The construction of OCI means that capital expenditures will increase, but we believe long-term investors will appreciate this trade-off — investing more in the short term to gain a leading position in the next-generation AI infrastructure is worthwhile, while also reaping the benefits of accelerated future revenue and earnings per share growth.”

Materne and his team added that aside from the AI business, other segments of Oracle's infrastructure business portfolio (including sovereign cloud, multi-cloud databases, etc.) also outperformed market levels and remain core support for long-term growth narratives — especially the growth potential related to enterprise AI inference in the next three to five years.

Morgan Stanley maintained a “Hold” rating on Oracle, with a target price of $246.

The analyst team led by Keith Weiss stated: “Oracle's new order amount in the first fiscal quarter reached $332 billion, which not only marks the highest quarterly order volume on record for the software industry but also signifies a fundamental shift in the company's business model — transitioning to a ‘data center operator’.”

Analysts mentioned that despite facing challenges with pressured gross margins, Oracle's future earnings per share targets are still expected to be significantly revised upward Weiss and his team stated that Oracle's core business is rapidly transforming into a "GPU data center operator," with a new series of contracts enabling it to dominate this market. Although details of these contracts are scarce, Oracle's management indicated that they have signed four contracts worth billions of dollars with three different clients this quarter.

Ellison's Wealth Soars, Closing in on Musk as Competition for World's Richest Heats Up

Oracle's stock surge has also propelled Ellison's wealth, bringing him close to the world's richest person, Elon Musk.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ellison's net worth surged by $70 billion in a single day, reaching $364 billion, just a step away from Musk's $384 billion. If Oracle maintains its upward trend after the market opens on Wednesday, Ellison will set the record for the largest single-day wealth increase in the index's history.

So far this year, Oracle's stock price has risen by 45%, while Musk's Tesla (TSLA.US) stock price has fallen by 14% during the same period, narrowing the wealth gap between the two billionaires.

As Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer, most of Ellison's wealth is closely tied to the software giant's stock. Musk, who first topped the list of the world's richest in 2021, has been surpassed by Amazon's (AMZN.US) Jeff Bezos and LVMH's (LVMUY.US) Bernard Arnault before reclaiming the top spot last year, maintaining the title for over 300 days. Oracle's explosive performance has once again added suspense to the competition for the world's richest person