A wider global technology selloff deepened pressure on software and chip stocks as investors rotated out of growth shares, even as Oracle remained a focal point over leverage and AI infrastructure spending.
Oracle posted its worst week on Wall Street in 25 years, with the stock falling 19% as investors focused on rising leverage, heavy spending on AI infrastructure and the risk that those investments may not deliver sufficient returns. The drop was the steepest weekly decline since August 2001, and extends a roughly 55% slide from the company’s September peak market capitalization of about $900 billion. The pressure centers on Oracle’s effort to build out data centers, including commitments tied to OpenAI, while competing against Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet without offering the same full technology stack. By the end of May, Oracle had about $130 billion in debt, while capital expenditures rose 162% to almost $56 billion during fiscal 2026. The move comes amid a broader retreat in technology shares across the United States, Europe and Asia. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.24% on Friday to 25,297.62 for a fifth straight daily loss, while the S&P 500 eased 0.05% to 7,354.02 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 44.51 points, or 0.09%, to 51,876.11. For the week, the Nasdaq dropped 4.6%, the S&P 500 lost almost 2%, and the Dow added 0.6%. Semiconductor stocks also came under pressure as investors questioned the scale of spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Intel fell 3%, Sandisk dropped 10%, Arm Holdings lost almost 4%, Marvell Technology declined 5% and Micron Technology fell more than 5% a day after rising on stronger third-quarter earnings. The selloff also spread through Europe and Asia, with declines in shares including ASML Holding, Infineon Technologies, ASM International, STMicroelectronics and SoftBank Group, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 5.81% and the Kosdaq dropped 4.10%. Wall Street’s technology retreat has pushed several high-profile stocks into bear market territory from their record highs, including Coinbase, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Netflix. Oracle shares are down 57% from their all-time high, while Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Broadcom, Marvell Technology, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor have also posted double-digit declines.