During Q4, one of the major subplots to spin out of the artificial intelligence (AI) investing theme has been the rise of Oracle (ORCL), a legacy Tech 1.0 stock that has now reinvented itself as a data center powerhouse. The company’s surge to new record highs briefly pushed co-founder Larry Ellison into the spot of world’s richest man earlier this year – but ORCL’s AI-fueled rally fell apart rapidly.
Concerns over the company’s debt-fueled growth helped to spark a pullback in ORCL from its highs, even earning a special call-out from notorious permabear Michael Burry in his critique of the AI bubble. Barchart’s own Senior Market Strategist John Rowland, CMT, flagged the stock’s debt-to-equity ratio as a “cautionary tale”; the metric currently stands at a stomach-churning 3.33.
