New York, Feb 21, 2026, 11:57 EST — The market has wrapped for the day.
Oracle dropped 5.4% Friday to finish at $148.08, having bounced from $147.39 up to $153.99 before the weekend. The stock trades again Monday. 1
Oracle’s been under pressure, caught up in the debate over who’s footing the bill for the next AI buildout—and just how reliable that flow of money will be. Nasdaq.com’s commentary frames Oracle almost as a stand-in for sentiment on OpenAI’s fundraising prospects, and whether Oracle can actually match those heavy spending pledges. 2
The conversation intensified late Friday after Reuters revealed OpenAI is eyeing about $600 billion in compute spending by 2030—compute being the horsepower behind running and training AI. The company is also preparing for an IPO, the report said. Nvidia, meanwhile, is nearing a $30 billion investment in OpenAI, part of a funding push the AI outfit wants to take past $100 billion. 3
Oracle shares slid despite a broader market uptick Friday, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn President Donald Trump’s global tariffs—an outcome that took some uncertainty off the table for investors. “Today is a removal of some uncertainty, and we’re on to the next phase,” said Mike Dickson, who heads research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments, speaking to Reuters. 4
Reuters, in another report, noted that Nvidia’s possible investment would join a funding round valuing the Sam Altman-led company around $830 billion—SoftBank and Amazon are also expected to join in. Nvidia wouldn’t comment, according to Reuters. 5
Oracle tends to move on OpenAI news. Last year, it landed a deal for OpenAI to buy $300 billion worth of computing power—fuel for Oracle’s cloud expansion, and a fixture in market chatter. 6
Earlier this month, Oracle rolled out an ambitious plan: up to $50 billion in funding by 2026, all aimed at scaling its cloud capacity. The move, though, turned up the heat—big numbers like that, spread across years, rarely escape close inspection. “The perception is that Oracle’s fortunes are now heavily tied to OpenAI,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, told Reuters at the time. 7
Friday’s slide pushed the stock well under its highs from last year. Oracle’s traded between $118.86 and $345.72 over the last 52 weeks, per Investing.com. 8
The retreat in AI names is spilling out well beyond just semiconductor stocks. Wedbush’s Dan Ives, quoted by Business Insider, called the current anxiety over AI disruption “fighting a ghost.” He noted that fresh funding rounds and upcoming earnings could act as stabilizers for sentiment. 9
According to Reuters’ “Week Ahead” piece, Nvidia and a batch of tech earnings are set to put the AI-exposed stocks to the test next week. Investors are tuned in for any clues from company leaders about whether massive AI investments are actually starting to pay off. 10
Yet the risks are hard to ignore. According to Business Insider, certain lenders have run into trouble trying to sell off loans linked to big data-center projects, including ones involving Oracle. It’s a fresh signal that the AI expansion hinges on access to capital just as much as appetite for new tech. 11
Traders are watching Feb. 25—that’s when Nvidia’s conference call goes live at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) to go over its fourth-quarter and fiscal-year numbers, according to the company. Oracle shareholders are paying attention, too: signals of cooling AI budgets or tougher funding can weigh on cloud infrastructure stocks the moment markets resume trading. 12
