New York, Feb 19, 2026, 14:31 EST — Regular session underway.
Oracle climbed roughly 0.4% to $156.84 Thursday afternoon, after ranging from $155.24 to $160 earlier in the session.
Wall Street’s main indexes edged lower, as investors weighed the AI story—questioning if hefty investments would translate to top-line and bottom-line gains anytime soon. “It’s just an over-reaction,” said Max Wasserman, founder and senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital. Some traders were also watching for Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures numbers, the Fed’s favored inflation metric. Reuters
Oracle still faces an underlying question: how does the market value AI infrastructure plays when both rates and risk sentiment move in a single week? The stock acts as a pressure gauge for that story—even when things seem quiet.
The previous day, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed in positive territory, lifted after Nvidia announced a multi-year agreement to provide Meta Platforms with millions of its current and upcoming AI chips. “Weakness in tech was bound to bring in the marginal buyer,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. Reuters
On Feb. 1, Oracle detailed plans to bring in $45 billion to $50 billion in gross cash during calendar 2026, aimed at ramping up its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure footprint. The strategy, according to Oracle, involves launching an at-the-market equity program worth up to $20 billion, along with a single investment-grade senior unsecured bond sale early in 2026. Customers named in the announcement include AMD, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok, and xAI.
Analysts liked the increased transparency when the company unveiled the plan, saying it eased immediate funding worries around the OpenAI-related data-center expansion. Guggenheim called Oracle’s move “a clear message to bond investors and the rating agencies,” while Barclays noted “the debt markets will likely be calmer” following the deal. Jefferies described the plan as something that “buys time.” But AJ Bell’s Russ Mould argued that “nervousness about the situation looks unlikely to go away any time soon.” Reuters
With an at-the-market program, a company can drip shares into the market rather than unloading them all at once. Mandatory convertible preferred? That’s a hybrid—part equity, eventually turning into common stock down the line.
But raising the cash comes with headaches. Issuing equity cuts into current holders’ stakes, and piling on fresh debt ups leverage—bad news if demand cools off or construction overruns pop up. Earlier this year, bondholders sued Oracle, blaming losses on its AI expansion and accusing the company of hiding the true scale of looming debt needs. Oracle wouldn’t comment, according to Reuters.
The company’s next big moment arrives with its quarterly update. According to Oracle’s investor relations FAQ, third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings drop in mid-March. Investors will be watching for any signs in cloud growth momentum, and looking for more clarity on the pace of Oracle’s planned equity and bond financing.
Related articles: Artificial Intelligence
