New York, February 18, 2026, 19:05 EST — After-hours
- Oracle closed up 1.4% at $156.17 and edged up to $156.25 in after-hours trading
- DTE Energy said it negotiated a 1.4-gigawatt power load for Oracle’s Michigan data center
- A Reuters review of 13F filings showed Adage Capital boosted its Oracle stake in Q4
Oracle Corp shares rose 1.4% to close at $156.17 on Wednesday and ticked up to $156.25 in after-hours trading. The stock traded between $151.42 and $157.30 during the session. (The Wall Street Journal)
The move lands in the middle of an uneasy debate around Oracle’s AI-led buildout. Investors have been trying to pin down whether its cloud push can keep up with demand without turning into a cash drain.
Wednesday’s bid also reflected the wider tone. Wall Street ended higher, helped by gains in Nvidia and other AI-linked names, and one strategist framed it as buyers stepping back in after the pullback. “Weakness in tech was bound to bring in the marginal buyer,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird. (Reuters)
Some of the attention around Oracle this week has come from a place far from Silicon Valley: power. Utility DTE Energy said it negotiated its first hyperscale data-center contracts in the quarter, including a deal to provide 1.4 gigawatts of load to power Oracle’s new data center in Saline Township, Michigan, which has been approved by the state regulator. DTE also said the Oracle deal would create “$300 million in annual benefits” for existing customers, and CEO Joi Harris said contracts would be structured so customers would “not be burdened” by the cost. (Reuters)
Big investors are shifting their exposure, too, and Oracle showed up in that flow data. Adage Capital boosted its stake in Oracle by about 19% to 1.87 million shares worth roughly $365 million, a filing showed, even as other managers trimmed positions across parts of the AI-heavy tech complex. Nvidia is due to report results on Feb. 25, a date traders often treat as a sentiment check on the broader AI trade. (Reuters)
Oracle, which sells database software and cloud services, has tried to cast its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure unit as a supplier of computing capacity to large customers chasing AI workloads. In a statement earlier this month, it said its fundraising was aimed at meeting contracted demand from its largest OCI customers, naming AMD, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok and xAI, among others. (Reuters)
Even after Wednesday’s rise, the stock is still far below its 52-week high of $345.72, Oracle’s investor relations site shows. The company’s market value was listed at about $460 billion. (Oracle Investor Relations)
Funding remains the running thread. Oracle has said it expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in calendar 2026 through a mix of equity and debt, including an at-the-market share-sale program — a mechanism that lets a company sell stock into the market over time — and bond issuance. “Oracle is not only saying they’re committed to investment-grade debt, but they are sending a clear message,” Guggenheim analysts wrote after the plan was announced. (Reuters)
There is also legal noise around the stock. The Gross Law Firm issued a notice on Wednesday pointing to a securities class action and said the complaint alleges Oracle’s AI infrastructure strategy could drive large capital spending without near-term revenue gains, raising risks around debt, credit rating and free cash flow. The notice listed an April 6, 2026 deadline to seek lead-plaintiff status; the allegations have not been proven. (MarketScreener)
For Thursday’s regular session, traders will watch whether software stocks hold the rebound and whether more infrastructure headlines land around the data-center buildout. Oracle’s next quarterly update is due in mid-March, the company says, a near-term checkpoint for guidance on spending and cloud demand. (Oracle Investor Relations)
