New York, February 18, 2026, 11:38 (EST) — Regular session
- Oracle shares up about 1.2% in late morning trade, after an early slide
- DTE highlighted a long-term 1.4-gigawatt power agreement tied to Oracle’s Michigan data-center project
- Markets await Fed minutes later Wednesday for rate clues; Oracle’s funding and capex stay in focus
Oracle Corp shares were up $1.89, or about 1.2%, at $155.86 by late morning on Wednesday, after earlier dipping to $151.55. Broader U.S. indexes edged higher as tech stocks rebounded, and CFRA’s Sam Stovall said the market was “waiting for some sort of a bullish or bearish catalyst” ahead of Federal Reserve minutes due at 2 p.m. ET. (Reuters)
The day-to-day trade in Oracle has started to look like a running referendum on AI spending. Investors are watching whether new cloud demand is arriving fast enough to justify the buildout, and whether the bill stays contained.
That is why power and permits matter now. Data centers do not run on press releases; they run on electricity, land and timelines that can slip.
DTE Energy said it has a long-term agreement to supply 1.4 gigawatts of power to Oracle’s planned data center in Saline Township, Michigan, under a deal that runs through February 2045 with options to extend. DTE said Oracle would cover the full cost of electricity so existing customers would not subsidize the rates, and Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith noted, “the quality of the offtaker matters,” with Oracle under scrutiny for the capital required for its data-center push. (Barron’s)
Separately, investor law firm Levi & Korsinsky said a securities class action lawsuit seeks to recover losses for Oracle shareholders who bought the stock between June 12, 2025 and Dec. 16, 2025, with an April 6, 2026 deadline to seek lead-plaintiff status. The complaint alleges Oracle’s AI infrastructure strategy would drive sharp capital spending increases without matching near-term revenue gains and raise risks tied to debt, free cash flow and credit metrics, the firm said. (PR Newswire)
Oracle has tried to get out in front of the funding question. Earlier this month, the company laid out a plan to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 using a mix of debt and equity, including a $20 billion at-the-market program — a facility that allows a company to sell shares into the market over time — alongside mandatory convertible preferred securities that pay a fixed dividend before converting into common stock. (Reuters)
The financing talk has been hanging over the stock since December, when Oracle raised its forecast for fiscal 2026 capital spending by about $15 billion and warned that AI investments were burning cash. BofA analysts wrote then that the weakness reflected an unusually fast investment cycle to support demand. (Reuters)
Peers are not standing still. Oracle’s cloud push pits it against bigger rivals in the market for AI-heavy workloads, and investors have become quick to punish any sign that spending is outrunning payback.
But the downside case is clear enough. If power bottlenecks, permitting fights or customer timing push new capacity out, Oracle could be left carrying higher financing costs and thinner near-term margins just as the market demands cleaner proof on returns.
Macro tailwinds are part of the tape as well. Data on Wednesday showed U.S. core capital goods orders — a proxy for business equipment spending — rose 0.6% in December, and Santander chief U.S. economist Stephen Stanley said the AI-driven investment boom “set the stage for a noticeable pickup in investment outlays in 2026.” (Reuters)
For Oracle investors, the next hard catalyst is the company’s next quarterly report, which Investing.com’s earnings calendar lists for March 9. Traders will be looking for updates on cloud demand, capital spending and how much of the expansion is funded through equity versus new debt. (Investing)
