Oracle Stock Surges 27% After Earnings Miss on Cloud Growth Outlook

Oracle's stock surged over 25% after hours following its latest earnings report, despite narrowly missing revenue and earnings per share estimates, driven primarily by an unprecedented 359% year-over-year increase in its remaining performance obligations (RPO) backlog to $455 billion. This backlog, largely composed of cloud services contracts including a $30 billion deal with OpenAI and other multi-billion-dollar agreements, underpins Oracle's aggressive forecast for cloud infrastructure revenue to grow from $18 billion in fiscal 2026 to $144 billion by fiscal 2030. The optimistic outlook has drawn both enthusiasm and skepticism, with some analysts labeling the projected exponential growth as unrealistic, yet the market response reflects confidence in Oracle's cloud transition and AI integrations. Industry experts, including D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria and financial commentator Jim Cramer, have highlighted the unprecedented investor interest and buying activity in Oracle stock, noting it as a rare phenomenon for such a large-cap company. Oracle's strategic focus on expanding its cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities appears to be reshaping investor expectations, positioning it as a significant player in the evolving tech landscape. This combination of substantial backlog growth, ambitious guidance, and strong investor demand has propelled Oracle to record stock highs.