Oracle Corporation had more than $70 billion wiped off its stock market value yesterday after the American computer software company reported disappointing cloud sales as it continued to invest huge sums in artificial intelligence data centres.

Technology investors are worried about an AI bubble as some analysts point to elevated valuations, unclear productivity gains and circular investments.

Oracle warned on Wednesday that capital expenditures, which include data centre spending, were expected to reach $50 billion in the year to the end of May 2026, a $15 billion increase from the company’s estimates in September.

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The company reported a 34 per cent rise in second-quarter cloud sales to $7.98 billion and a 68 per cent rise in revenue from the company’s infrastructure business to $4.08 billion. However, both figures missed analysts’ estimates. At least 13 brokerages cut their price targets on Oracle’s stock. Oracle closed down $24.17, or 10.8 per cent, at $198.84 in New York on Thursday night.

Oracle, based in Texas, was founded in 1977 as a provider of packaged computer software to businesses and still operates in that area as well as in hardware.

It has long been in the shadow of younger tech groups such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google. However, its shares surged in September when the company outlined surprisingly strong quarterly earnings which demonstrated growing demand for its relatively low-cost cloud infrastructure services. It has recently signed significant cloud-computing deals with tech companies such as OpenAI.

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and chairman, was listed as the world’s second-richest man on Tuesday, with an estimated fortune of $283 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Some analysts brushed off concerns about Oracle’s high infrastructure spending. Bank of America analysts said: “The current weakness is more capex investment cycles needed to support demand, with the company paying the price for the abnormal speed in which investment is required to meet current AI demand trends.”