New York, Feb 21, 2026, 11:57 EST — Market closed.
Oracle shares fell 5.4% on Friday, closing at $148.08, after swinging between $147.39 and $153.99 as U.S. markets headed into the weekend. Trading resumes on Monday. (Investing)
The slide keeps Oracle in the crosshairs as investors try to price a simple question: who pays for the next wave of AI computing, and how steady is that money. A commentary on Nasdaq.com said Oracle is trading like a proxy for the market’s view on OpenAI’s ability to raise fresh funds — and Oracle’s ability to keep up with the spending commitments that follow. (Nasdaq)
That debate sharpened late Friday after Reuters reported OpenAI is targeting roughly $600 billion of total compute spend through 2030 — compute meaning the processing power needed to run and train AI systems — while laying groundwork for an IPO, or initial public offering. The report also said Nvidia is closing in on a $30 billion investment in OpenAI as part of a fundraising round the startup is seeking to push above $100 billion. (Reuters)
Oracle’s drop came even as the broader market finished higher on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, easing one source of uncertainty for investors. “Today is a removal of some uncertainty, and we’re on to the next phase,” Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments, said in a Reuters interview. (Reuters)
In a separate report, Reuters said the proposed Nvidia investment would be part of a round that could value the Sam Altman-led company at about $830 billion, with SoftBank and Amazon also likely to participate. Nvidia declined to comment, Reuters said. (Reuters)
Oracle’s sensitivity to OpenAI headlines is not new. Oracle signed a contract last year under which OpenAI would buy $300 billion of computing power from Oracle, a deal that made Oracle’s cloud buildout a market talking point. (Reuters)
When Oracle outlined plans earlier this month to raise up to $50 billion in 2026 to fund cloud capacity expansion, it also drew the kind of scrutiny that comes with big checks and long timelines. “The perception is that Oracle’s fortunes are now heavily tied to OpenAI,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said in the Reuters report at the time. (Reuters)
The stock’s drop on Friday left it deep below last year’s highs. Oracle’s 52-week range runs from $118.86 to $345.72, according to Investing.com. (Investing)
The AI pullback has not stayed neatly inside chips. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives described the recent fear around AI disruption as “fighting a ghost,” Business Insider reported, while pointing to funding and earnings catalysts that could steady sentiment. (Business Insider)
Next week’s main test for the AI-sensitive tape comes from Nvidia and a cluster of tech results, Reuters reported in its “Week Ahead” column, with investors listening closely for what corporate executives say about returns on big AI capital spending. (Reuters)
But there’s a downside path too. Business Insider reported some lenders have struggled to offload debt tied to large data-center projects involving companies such as Oracle, a reminder that the AI buildout is as much about financing as it is about demand. (Business Insider)
The next hard date on traders’ calendars is Feb. 25, when Nvidia will host its conference call at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) to discuss fourth-quarter and fiscal-year results, the company said. For Oracle investors, the read-through matters: any hint of slower AI spending, or tighter financing, can hit cloud infrastructure names quickly when markets reopen. (Nvidia)
