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Oracle rises on Bloom deal as software stocks rebound
Oracle shares rose 5% as software stocks extended a rebound. The company also expanded a capacity deal with Bloom Energy, sending its shares up 20%.
Oracle expects to procure up to 2.8 gigawatts of systems from Bloom Energy for data centers.
This comes days after it received a warrant to buy about US$400 million of Bloom stock.
Other software names also advanced as the sector extended its rebound from an AI-led selloff.
🔗 Source: CNBC
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
The AI power crunch is the missing context for Oracle’s deal
- Oracle broadened its partnership with Bloom Energy to cover electricity needs for Oracle’s AI and cloud computing infrastructure expansion 1.
- The agreement stands apart from Stargate, a US$500 billion AI infrastructure joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, the Japanese technology investment group 2.
- Conventional power grids were not built for the fast-rising, high-density demand tied to AI workloads 3.
- Bloom’s fuel cell systems can come online sooner than many traditional options, and Bloom said it delivered a fully operational fuel cell system to Oracle in 55 days 1.
AI’s thirst for energy creates a new infrastructure battleground
- The Bloom Energy arrangement suggests AI buildouts can hit limits outside chips, including power availability and land constraints 4.
- Stargate has said its planned capacity is nearly 7 gigawatts across multiple sites, including in Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio 4.
- That demand opens space for firms that deliver dependable on-site generation, which can sidestep some limits of the conventional power grid 1.
- The AI infrastructure race now includes securing energy supplies while also building physical capacity quickly and at scale 5.