Oracle’s Final Act: Why the AI Boom’s Unlikely Star Hides the Deepest Trap
By Hugh Hendry
Shell Beach may not be the natural setting for a valuation argument, or any argument for that matter, but periods of quiet often expose the loudest contradictions in markets. One of them is Oracle, a company that, depending on who you ask, is either the least loved beneficiary of the AI boom or the most extravagantly late stock to the game.
Investors remain uneasy. Oracle lacks the glamour of its peers; it is older, slower, and visibly mortal in an industry that worships acceleration. It has entered the fray of AI very late in the dance, offering to sacrifice its balance sheet to wed this new belle of the ball, AI. Yet, markets have a habit of delivering their final surprises from precisely the places investors stopped looking.
