Oracle Surges 12% While Apple, Amazon Tumble in Choppy Tech Week

Why It Matters

The rally underscores investor appetite for AI‑centric infrastructure, while the broader tech pullback signals heightened scrutiny of cloud spending and margin pressures across the sector.

Key Takeaways

• Oracle gains 12% after announcing multi‑billion AI cloud investment
• Microsoft, Amazon slip into bear market despite solid earnings
• Apple falls nearly 8% amid memory‑price margin worries
• Nvidia down 1.4% while EPS forecasts rise
• Neo‑cloud players rally, benefiting from hyperscaler infrastructure spend

Pulse Analysis

Oracle’s aggressive AI cloud rollout marks a strategic pivot that could reshape enterprise software spending. By committing tens of billions to AI‑optimized infrastructure, the company positions itself as a viable alternative to traditional hyperscalers, attracting customers eager to embed generative AI into core applications. This capital infusion not only fuels R&D but also signals confidence to investors that AI services can generate sustainable revenue streams, potentially narrowing the valuation gap with peers that have long dominated the cloud market.

Meanwhile, the broader Magnificent 7 cohort wrestles with divergent pressures. Microsoft’s Azure growth missed expectations, prompting a bear‑market classification despite a beat on earnings, while Amazon’s AWS guidance fell short of market optimism, eroding investor confidence. Apple’s slide reflects a different pain point: rising memory component costs threaten its high‑margin product mix, prompting analysts to flag margin compression. Collectively, these dynamics illustrate a sector in which growth narratives are being re‑evaluated against cost structures, competitive intensity, and the pace of AI adoption.

Nvidia’s modest dip, set against rising EPS forecasts, highlights the paradox of a chipmaker whose fundamentals appear strong yet whose share price remains volatile. Expectations for $9 EPS suggest the market may still undervalue the company’s AI chip pipeline. Simultaneously, neo‑cloud players like CoreWeave and Nebius are gaining traction, benefitting from hyperscaler capacity constraints and the broader AI infrastructure spend. Investors are thus watching a potential reallocation of capital toward specialized AI cloud providers, a trend that could redefine the competitive landscape over the next fiscal year.

Oracle Surges 12% While Apple, Amazon Tumble in Choppy Tech Week

By Eric Bleeker · Published Feb 16, 2026 6:00 PM EST

• The Nasdaq saw a chopping week last week. Oracle (ORCL) gained 12 % but every single Magnificent 7 company fell into negative territory year‑to‑date. Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) are now in bear‑market territory. NVIDIA (NVDA) declined last week despite broadly good news.

• Apple is also declining on fears of pricing pressures. Memory prices continue to rise, which could crimp Apple’s margins in the year ahead.

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Tech stocks delivered a choppy week, with the sector’s biggest names diverging sharply as AI‑spending debates intensified and bear‑market territory claimed two Magnificent 7 members.

Incredibly, every single Magnificent 7 stock is now down year‑to‑date after NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares slipped 2.23 % on Friday. Let’s dive into the biggest storylines in technology this week. While many stocks sold off, we also saw a rebound in Oracle’s shares that may mark a turning point in brutal sentiment around the stock.

Weekly Performance Snapshot

| Stock | Ticker | Weekly Change | YTD 2026 |

|-------|--------|---------------|----------|

| Oracle | ORCL | +12.13 % | –17.63 % |

| Microsoft | MSFT | +0.04 % | –17.02 % |

| Nvidia | NVDA | –1.40 % | –1.98 % |

| Amazon | AMZN | –5.48 % | –13.88 % |

| Apple | AAPL | –7.95 % | –5.83 % |

Bear Market Territory Claims Two Magnificent 7 Names

Microsoft and Amazon both entered bear markets this week, down 27 % and 23 % from their recent highs, respectively. Microsoft’s decline comes despite beating earnings expectations. While the company delivered solid earnings, Wall Street swiftly delivered the stock its worst one‑day decline since Covid. Microsoft currently has two “anchors” on its share price.

• First, it’s lumped in with software stocks that are selling off on fears AI will reduce their pricing power in the years to come. To defend against those fears, it needs to devote considerable computing resources to Copilot and its cash‑cow products like Office.

• Unfortunately, that need runs in stark contrast to Wall Street’s other fear around the stock: Azure sales growth is below expectations. Microsoft guided to 38 % growth next quarter, which is great, but the Street was expecting growth rates to climb above 40 %. The reason Azure can’t grow is because Microsoft is devoting resources to defending its products.

It’s a difficult situation to be in. However, Microsoft should be fine in the long term once it can clear the current negative sentiment.

In Amazon’s case, once again we have cloud‑growth rates that were simply too low. The company guided to $200 billion in capex this year. That’s a massive number, and if it were accompanied by confidence that AWS growth rates would accelerate into the upper 20 s in the back half of the year, Amazon is probably trading 10 % higher today. Unfortunately, that confidence wasn’t provided on the conference call. Once again, Amazon will likely be fine in the long run. This isn’t the first time the stock has crashed on a disastrous performance from CEO Andy Jassy on a conference call (and it likely won’t be the last).

For now, Amazon is a compelling value, if you can stomach some near‑term pain.

While Amazon and Microsoft were selling off on worries about cloud growth, Apple is selling off on concerns cloud demand will lead to serious margin erosion this year as memory prices rise. Given all this worry Magnificent 7 companies are spending too much on cloud infrastructure, you’d figure NVIDIA would at least be up.

(Spoiler: It was down this week too! More on that in a moment.)

Oracle Bucks the Trend

Oracle bucked the trend with a 12 % weekly gain after announcing plans to raise tens of billions for AI cloud infrastructure, though it still sits 18 % below its 2025 high. Neo‑cloud stocks had a great week. CoreWeave jumped 7 % while Nebius rose even more. All the infrastructure spend from hyperscalers very likely should benefit neo‑clouds.

Still, Oracle is an example of how rapid shifts in sentiment can change. The company has been virtually “untouchable” since OpenAI went on its media tour, announcing deal after deal and spooking the markets. We’ll see if the sentiment shift continues in the weeks ahead, but many companies in the broader “OpenAI” complex look cheap to me right now relative to AI’s potential in the years ahead.

Nvidia Holds Steady Amid Chip Volatility

Nvidia managed a relatively flat week, down just 1.4 % despite broadly good news for AI infrastructure companies. The big picture is that NVIDIA shares have stayed largely flat as expectations keep rising. 90 days ago, Wall Street expected the company to earn $6.81 in its next fiscal year; today that number is $7.74. Yet, shares are down about 12 % from where they traded in early November despite these rising expectations.

I believe Wall Street is still underestimating NVIDIA’s upcoming year and $9 per share in EPS isn’t out of the question. If NVIDIA soundly beats earnings on February 25th, there could be a large reversal in its pricing.

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