Oracle shares soar on solid earnings driven by AI demand
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The news: Oracle shares surged in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq after the US software giant posted strong quarterly earnings driven by demand for its cloud-based AI infrastructure that "substantially exceeds supply".
The numbers: Oracle shares were 13.3% higher by 9:20am AEDT in after-hours trading, after closing on a 1.5% rise.
The company reported total revenue for the third quarter of USD13.3 billion ($20.1 billion), up 7% compared to the prior corresponding period, with revenue from its AI cloud infrastructure business jumping 53%.
Oracle's net income was at USD2.4 billion while its non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net income was USD4 billion, up 18% and beating analyst expectations of USD3.87 billion.
The context: In September, Oracle announced a partnership with Microsoft, giving customers direct access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and deployed in Microsoft Azure data centres.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz said that the company expects to continue receiving large contracts reserving cloud infrastructure capacity because the demand for its AI infrastructure "substantially exceeds supply".
Catz said that Oracle continues to open new and expand existing cloud data centres "very, very rapidly", with its cloud infrastructure business remaining in a "hyper growth phase [...] for the foreseeable future."
The source: Oracle earnings release
