Oracle shares rose about 40% on Wednesday after the company pointed to a demand surge for its cloud services from AI firms, underscoring its deeper push into the backbone of artificial intelligence systems.

Oracle is soaring as investors cheer its aggressive data-center forecast as a positive sign for AI demand.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now changing everything. Demand for AI infrastructure is exploding, with tech giants and start-ups scrambling to secure capacity to both train and run advanced AI models. Oracle is emerging as an enormous winner.

Fortune magazine wondered on its cover whether Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison might become the world's richest person, while BusinessWeek declared Ellison is "cool again," noting that "Silicon Valley's bad boy is having his revenge.

The stock ( ORCL) shot up more than 40% Wednesday morning, its largest single-day jump ever. It was such big leap that it minted Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison $100 billion in less than hour, making him the world’s richest person and bumping Elon Musk to second place.

Oracle stock is on pace for its best day this century as analysts heap praise on the 48-year-old tech firm's fiscal Q1 report.

NEW YORK] Oracle shares surged to a record in extended trading after the company posted a significant increase in bookings and gave an aggressive outlook for its cloud infrastructure business. Read more at The Business Times.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit intraday record highs at the open on Wednesday, after cooler-than-expected producer inflation data boosted bets on interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, while a surge in cloud computing firm Oracle added to gains.