Capital expenditures, a metric of data center spending, were about $12 billion in the quarter, an increase from $8.5 billion in the preceding period, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts anticipated $8.25 billion in capital spending in the quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Fiscal second-quarter cloud sales increased 34% to $7.98 billion, while revenue in the company’s closely watched infrastructure business gained 68% to $4.08 billion. Both numbers fell just short of analysts’ estimates.
The shares plunged as much as 16% after markets opened in New York on Thursday, their biggest intraday decline since March 2001, erasing about $102 billion in market value. Oracle’s stock had already lost about a third of its value through Wednesday’s close since a record high on Sept. 10. Meanwhile, a measure of Oracle’s credit risk reached a fresh 16-year high.
Known for its database software, Oracle has recently found success in the competitive cloud computing market. It’s engaging in a massive data center build-out to power AI work for OpenAI and also counts companies such as ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc. as major cloud customers.
