Bengaluru — Oracle shares jumped nearly 9% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump said the company would make a large investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, alongside OpenAI and SoftBank.
The joint venture, called Stargate, plans to invest $500-billion to help the US stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race, Trump said at the White House on Tuesday.
The venture plans to deploy $100-billion immediately, with the remaining investment occurring over the next four years. Construction of the project’s first data centres has already begun in Texas.
Nvidia will supply chips for the venture, pushing the chip giant’s stock up 2.4%. Other “technology partners” also gained, with Microsoft up 1.5% and Arm climbing 5.4%.
“We believe this is the start of a wave of massive AI investments to take place in the US as we expect more big tech players to make announcements over the coming weeks,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
AI consumes vast amounts of energy to drive its immense computing power, boosting the demand for specialised data centres and electricity needed to power them.
That boosted shares of nuclear power company Vistra by 4.2%. Over the past 12 months, the company’s shares have surged more than fourfold, partly due to data centres’ increasing demand for clean, sustainable energy.
Shares of AI server makers also gained, with Dell Technologies up 3.4% and Super Micro Computer rising 3.3%. Among other stocks, AI data analytics firm Palantir Technologies gained 2.1%.
Oracle shares closed 7% higher on Tuesday, boosted by reports of the joint venture.
Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.