Oracle stock was the most notable winner from the stock market’s first day of trading during President Donald Trump’s second term, adding more than $30 billion in market value following reports the cloud computing and data storage giant will announce a massive artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership at the White House later Tuesday.
Key Takeaways
- The AI infrastructure deal involving Oracle, OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed parent of the generative AI ChatGPT program and Tokyo-headquartered conglomerate SoftBank will be announced by Trump later Tuesday, CBS News first reported.
- The project, which was confirmed by several outlets, will include $100 billion of investment in U.S. infrastructure for the first year and up to $500 billion over the next four years, according to reports on the joint venture dubbed “Stargate.”
- Shares of Oracle rose 7% by midafternoon, with much of the gains following the Stargate report, hitting their highest intraday level since Dec. 26.
- That made Oracle by far the biggest percentage gainer of the U.S.’ 42 “mega-cap” companies worth at least $200 billion, headlining broader gains Tuesday, with the S&P 500 rising nearly 1% to what is on track to be its highest close since Dec. 17.
- Other major AI stocks also rose Tuesday, as shares of semiconductor chip designers Nvidia and SoftBank-backed Arm Holdings rose 3% and 4%, respectively.
Larry Ellison Overtakes Mark Zuckerberg As World’s Third Richest
Oracle cofounder and chairman Larry Ellison got more than $10 billion richer Tuesday as his company’s shares rallied, jumping from $205 billion to $215 billion.
Ellison, whose 41% stake in Oracle makes him the company’s largest shareholder, was the biggest billionaire winner Tuesday, more than doubling the $4 billion bump from the next biggest gainer, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Ellison’s big Tuesday vaulted him past Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to again make Ellison the third-richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ real-time net worth tracker.
Key Background
SoftBank’s billionaire CEO Masayoshi Son appeared with Trump last month to announce his company’s $100 billion investment into U.S. technology ventures during Trump’s presidency. It’s not yet clear how Stargate factors into that commitment or how the three companies will split financing.
Oracle is OpenAI’s cloud computing partner, helping power and store the massive data needed to power OpenAI’s large language models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, worth $1.2 billion according to our latest estimates, was among a swath of big tech figures including Bezos and Zuckerberg in attendance for Trump’s inauguration Monday, though Ellison was not spotted at the event.
A major donor to GOP causes during the 2022 midterms, Ellison did not publicly support a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, though his friend Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, was Trump’s most prolific donor.
Tangent
Oracle hosts the U.S. data of the popular social media app TikTok, becoming a player in the dramatic ban of the app, which went into effect this weekend before Trump signed an extending by 90 days the ban unless TikTok sells its U.S. operations to an American buyer.
“Oracle could play a key role in any deal given their key technology partnership with TikTok,” predicted Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Sunday note to clients. Shares of Oracle fell 5% after the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold the TikTok ban Jan. 10.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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