Oracle (ORCL) shares soared more than 6% in pre-market trading to around $190 after Bloomberg reported that TikTok had signed a binding agreement to form a new joint venture in the U.S. led by Oracle. This eased investor concerns about AI-driven valuation risks.
The optimistic reaction spread across risk assets. Bitcoin BTC$88,226.51 Invesco QQQ (QQQ) futures, which track the performance of the Nasdaq 100, rose about 0.5%, and AI mining stocks also rose. IREN (IREN) rose about 4%, Cipher Mining (CIFR) rose about 4%, and Coreweave (CRWV) rose about 6%.
Oracle will play a central role as the primary cloud infrastructure and data security provider, overseeing where TikTok's AI recommendation system will be retrained and operated based on US-based data.
The market sees this agreement as proof that Oracle's AI exposure is tied to real-world, large-scale workloads.
This matters because AI hyperscalers such as Oracle and CoreWeave have come under pressure in recent weeks, with their stock prices hurt by concerns over the sustainability of large AI infrastructure investments, debt-laden data center construction, project delays, and doubts about partnerships.
After a strong week on the macroeconomic front with US inflation and employment data and a Bank of Japan interest rate hike, market attention is now turning to US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index data.
