Oracle Corp. started September by making headlines for layoffs. Then, on Tuesday, September 9, it reported first-quarter financial results that missed the mark for revenue and earnings.

Yet, you wouldn’t guess any of this based on how its stock has rallied. 

The software company’s shares (NYSE:ORCL) rose over 32% through after-hours and into premarket trading on Wednesday.

The boost comes down to Oracle’s revenue projections rather than the lackluster results for fiscal year (FY) 2026’s first quarter. The company predicts that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s entire FY 2026 revenue will reach $18 billion—a 77% jump year-over-year (YOY). 

That’s just the start. Oracle further expects revenue for its cloud infrastructure business to reach $32 billion in 2027, $73 billion the following year, and $114 billion and $144 billion in 2029 and 2030, respectively. 

‘The who’s who of AI’

Oracle signed four multibillion-dollar contracts during quarter one, stemming from three different customers, it said. CEO Safra Catz stated in the report that the company expects to sign “several” more multibillion-dollar customers over the next few months.

Then there was the July announcement that Oracle is teaming up with OpenAI to create 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate data center capacity in the U.S. 

“Clearly, we had an amazing start to the year because Oracle has become the go-to place for AI workloads. We have signed significant cloud contracts with the who’s who of AI, including OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Nvidia, AMD, and many others,” Catz said in an earnings call. “At the end of Q1, Remaining Performance Obligations, or RPO, now top $455 billion. This is up 359% from last year and up $317 billion from the end of Q4. Our cloud RPO grew nearly 500% on top of 83% growth last year.” 

Catz predicted that Oracle’s RPO will likely surpass $500 billion in the coming months.

So with these developments in mind, investors don’t seem bothered by Oracle reporting $14.93 billion in quarter one revenue, falling short of Wall Street’s predicted $15.04 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC.

There was also a slight miss in earnings per share, reaching $1.47 adjusted, rather than the $1.48 expected. 

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s tremendous predicted growth further overshadowed recent layoffs, which were reported by local outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Kansas City, and elsewhere.