Oracle tops sales estimates as AI-frenzy spurs cloud demand

Oracle Corp. reported quarterly revenue that topped estimates, signaling the software maker’s cloud business is benefiting from heightened demand for artificial intelligence workloads. Shares gained in extended trading.

Sales increased 17 per cent to US$13.8 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, the company said Monday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated US$13.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was US$1.67 a share, compared with the average estimate of US$1.58.

“Revenue growth was led by our cloud applications and infrastructure businesses,” Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said in the statement. “Our infrastructure growth rate has been accelerating.”

Oracle has focused on expanding its cloud infrastructure business to more forcefully compete with Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, all of which have seen recent slowdowns. A boom in generative AI, which needs tremendous computing power, may boost demand for Oracle’s cloud services, wrote Alex Zukin, an analyst at Wolfe Research, in a note echoed by several other analysts ahead of earnings. Generative AI startup Cohere said last week that Oracle was among its investors in a US$270 million funding round.