New York, Feb 13, 2026, 11:58 (EST) — Regular session
- Oracle shares climbed roughly 1.6% in midday action, beating the slight gains showing up in broader equity benchmarks.
- New U.S. government cloud deals are on the company’s radar, with projects linked to the Air Force’s Cloud One initiative and a CMS modernization push.
- Chief Executive Officer Clayton M. Magouyrk unloaded 10,000 Oracle shares earlier this week, according to a regulatory filing.
Oracle jumped 1.6% to $158.97 by midday Friday, building on momentum from several U.S. public-sector cloud deals announced earlier this week. The SPDR fund that mirrors the S&P 500, along with the Invesco QQQ tracking the Nasdaq 100, each gained roughly 0.5%.
Why now? Investors are suddenly edgy about exactly which players stand to gain—or lose ground—as the AI surge shakes out. “You’ve clearly seen that breakdown in terms of the monolithic AI trade,” said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, earlier this week. (Reuters)
Oracle is throwing its weight behind that conversation, positioning Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as the go-to for sensitive workloads—think heavy compliance requirements and drawn-out procurement processes. These contracts usually have staying power after a vendor gets the nod, though it can take a while before the revenue really starts to register.
Oracle landed an $88 million firm-fixed price task order from the U.S. Department of the Air Force, the company announced Thursday. The deal covers OCI services as part of the Air Force Cloud One initiative and runs through Dec. 7, 2028. Under the agreement, the Air Force will get access to Oracle AI Database 26ai, according to Oracle. “With this latest contract award, defense customers can confidently advance their most critical missions,” said Kim Lynch, executive vice president at Oracle. (Oracle)
Oracle announced a day earlier that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services picked OCI to help consolidate and shift select on-premises workloads into the cloud, part of a broader modernization push. The company said CMS will rely on its FedRAMP High-certified infrastructure—a security benchmark for U.S. government clouds—when dealing with systems demanding higher security. “CMS’ programs are vital … a responsibility that demands uncompromising security, reliability, and fiscal stewardship,” Lynch said. (Oracle)
Oracle’s been pushing its multi-cloud pitch lately — running workloads on more than one heavyweight cloud platform — as companies look for ways around single-vendor lock-in. In India, the firm is broadening its cloud presence, with plans to roll out Oracle services inside Amazon Web Services in the coming weeks, according to The Economic Times. “I think 2026 will be the year when projects really scale,” said Chris Chelliah, senior vice president at Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific. (AI “inference” refers to models using fresh data to generate responses, rather than the training process itself.) (The Economic Times)
Chief Executive Officer Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares on Feb. 9, according to a Form 4 filing — a required U.S. disclosure when company insiders make stock trades. The shares went at a weighted average of about $155.23 apiece, with the transaction split across multiple trades. That leaves Magouyrk holding 134,030 shares. (Cloudfront)
Right now, traders are eyeing whether Oracle’s recent wins with government contracts could mean more predictable cloud usage ahead, as AI news keeps jolting the market. It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing—big tech stocks have taken heat from investors over how much cash is pouring into AI, and there’s a growing split between companies seen as leaders and those being left behind.
There’s a catch, though. Contract awards like these often stretch out across years, with real work sometimes delayed as agencies take their time and security checks stack up. Plus, Oracle is still up against heavyweights—Amazon, Microsoft, Google—on the cloud infrastructure side. Even when Oracle pulls off a “win,” it can end up just battling for margins.
Oracle is slated to release its quarterly numbers on or about March 9, per earnings calendars from Investing.com and Yahoo Finance. The company could revise that timing. For ORCL, this report stands out as the next significant catalyst; investors want to see tangible evidence of cloud demand along with expenses tied to providing those services. (Investing)
