Funding rounds of that size are no longer unusual. The surge in AI investment and the growing need for cloud capacity and data centers have pushed many companies to seek massive financing. But Oracle's recent run has been unusually volatile. Just a few months ago, its shares jumped 40% in a single day, briefly making CEO Larry Ellison the world's richest person ( ahead of Elon Musk).
Over the past several days, TikTok users have found themselves at a loss. Literally, I mean: They lost their audiences, and their view counts showed "0." Some people who attempted to upload content about anti-ICE protests or the killing of Alex Pretti alleged that the platform was intentionally blocking them from doing so. Others were able to get their videos uploaded, but alleged that TikTok was not distributing them.
After months of negotiations, TikTok finalized a deal with several US-based investors days before the next deadline, after which TikTok would have allegedly been banned in the US. Today, TikTok was finally divested from ByteDance, which retains a 20% stake, while the other 80% is split between Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX and others. Each of those three companies gets a 15% stake.
TikTok has finalized the deal for its US entity, with its parent company ByteDance selling majority of its stake to a group of non-Chinese investors. The deal was closed just before the Trump Administration's latest deadline, banning the app in the US unless it was divested from ByteDance, which will only retain 20 percent of the new entity. TikTok's investors will own 80 percent, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Emirati-state owned investment firm, taking 15 percent each.
With the first full trading week of 2026 now in the books, investors might be wondering if the strong early start in the S&P will precede even more strength. Undoubtedly, a lack of a Santa Claus rally has seemingly paved the way for a rather hot start to 2026, with some memory chip stocks really picking up momentum while certain semiconductor equipment makers made up for lost time.
The markets are looking to clinch a winning week as they eye the final stretch of 2025. As things stand, all three of the major stock market averages are little changed while the CBOE volatility index is up approximately 4.7% on the day. With the exception of Nvidia ( Nasdaq: NVDA), which is tacking on almost 2% on a new deal development, Big Tech stocks are aimless. The Nasdaq Composite is looking at a 22.1% gain for the year.
The TikTok deal positions Oracle as a key investor and security partner, potentially providing a new revenue stream through cloud services and data management for TikTok's 170 million U.S. users. While Oracle's cloud infrastructure growth has been driven primarily by artificial intelligence (AI) demand, concerns have skyrocketed in recent weeks over Oracle's debt and capital expenditures, as well as fears of an AI-spending slowdown.
After dipping below its 50-day moving average, shares of Nvidia ( NASDAQ: NVDA) are just starting to regain some lost momentum. Up about $2 in premarket, it's oversold at triple bottom support dating back to September. From its last traded price of $174.14, we'd like to see NVDA initially retest $200. Not only is Nvidia still riding Micron's earnings and guidance, but it's also still riding a Barclays upgrade to a buy rating thanks to the likelihood of further AI spending. "We are OW as the company has long-term sustainable growth led by a large lead in GPUs for AI in DC, with further Edge opportunities (autos, robots, etc.) and a competitive moat around a large portion of the market," said the firm, as quoted by CNBC.
The Dow is down about 45 points, as the Nasdaq tacks on another 26 points. After yesterday's Micron-induced tech rally, Oracle ( NYSE: ORCL) is giving markets a boost. All on news TikTok agreed to sell its U.S. operations to a new joint venture that includes the oversold tech giant and private equity investors at Silver Lake. Shares of Oracle are up about $8.50 in premarket on the news.
