NEW YORK, Jan 29, 2026, 10:54 EST — Regular session
- Oracle shares dropped roughly 6% by mid-morning, deepening their recent losing streak.
- The decline followed a wider selloff in software shares, sparked by Microsoft’s earnings that revived concerns over AI investments and the cloud’s return on investment.
- Oracle unveiled new AI-focused products and partnerships, leaving investors eager to see if this spurs real demand.
Oracle shares dropped 5.6% to $163.09 on Thursday, extending the steep sell-off in the enterprise software sector. Investors weighed the latest big-tech earnings alongside fresh doubts over costly AI investments.
This shift is key since Oracle straddles two tricky markets to value: steady, recurring enterprise software income and the capital-intensive race to boost AI-driven computing sales.
At the moment, the market sees that combination as a liability. Traders are quick to penalize any sign of “spend now, monetize later,” even if the company is rolling out new products and landing fresh customer deals.
The Nasdaq fell about 1%, and the S&P 500 slipped as Microsoft plunged 11.3%, pulling software stocks down with it. SAP’s cautious cloud forecast and a post-earnings drop in ServiceNow added to the negative mood. Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, said, “It’s going to be a ‘show me the money’ story for AI.” Apple was set to report earnings after the close. 1
Oracle rolled out a new AI-driven product Thursday: the Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform. It combines customer and third-party data with over 129 million de-identified electronic health records (EHRs)—records stripped of personal info—to fuel “AI agents” that assist with analyses and workflows. “Fragmented, inconsistent data is a major barrier to progress,” said Seema Verma, Oracle Health and Life Sciences executive vice president. Oracle plans to showcase the platform at the SCOPE conference in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 2-5. 2
Oracle announced that IHG Hotels & Resorts has approved its OPERA Cloud hospitality platform as the cloud-based property management system for IHG’s properties across the Americas and EMEAA regions. “We are proud to deepen our longstanding collaboration with IHG,” said Alex Alt, Oracle Commercial Cloud Applications executive vice president. IHG’s Chief Product & Technology Officer Jolie Fleming highlighted the industry’s move toward cloud-based systems. 3
The company recently made headlines over its infrastructure. Oracle reported this week that a temporary power outage caused by weather at one of its data centers led to technical problems for U.S. TikTok users. Oracle and TikTok are collaborating to fix the issues, Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in an email. 4
Oracle came into Thursday following two consecutive losing days, having closed Wednesday at $172.80. The stock is now trading about 50% below its 52-week peak of $345.72, reached on Sept. 10, per MarketWatch data. 5
Investors face the risk that the market’s patience for big spending and vague timelines will shrink further. If demand for software cools or AI investments outpace short-term gains, pressure on the sector could persist, despite a steady stream of product launches and partnership announcements.
Execution remains a wildcard. New platforms and regulatory approvals often take quarters before they boost bookings and revenue. Even a brief data center outage can hit hard, especially when the tape is already under pressure.
Investors are now focused on whether the software selloff will deepen following more big-tech earnings. All eyes also turn to Oracle, which could shed light on customer uptake of its newest AI offerings ahead of the Feb. 2-5 SCOPE conference.
