Oracle Posts Cloud Sales That Top Estimates on Surging AI Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. reported growth in its cloud computing business that topped analysts' estimates, suggesting the company's large AI data center projects are helping boost its financial results.

Sales in the closely watched cloud infrastructure business jumped 121% to $7.4 billion, the company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts, on average, expected the division to post $7.19 billion in sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company also said it completed an earlier-announced plan to sell $20 billion of equity from time to time at market value. Ahead of Thursday's earnings, several analysts had raised questions about the timing of the at-the-market equity sale.

Oracle, long known for its database software, has refashioned itself as a provider of computing power for artificial intelligence work and is embarking on a major build-out of data centers for OpenAI and other customers. Wall Street is watching the scale of spending on these ambitious projects and how quickly Oracle can complete them. The company said it added 850 megawatts of data center capacity in the quarter.

The shares gained about 4% in extended trading after closing at $152.94 in New York. The stock had dropped 38% since its June 1 high for the year on concerns over financing needs, rising component costs and news reports on data center construction challenges, wrote Derrick Wood, an analyst at TD Cowen, ahead of the results.

Fiscal first-quarter sales gained 30% to $19.3 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.92 per share. Analysts, on average estimated $1.75 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.