Key Highlights

● Oracle slid on October 22 as AI-financing worries weighed on the cloud giant.

● Oracle sells database software and cloud services and is expanding AI infrastructure.

● CoreWeave fell to a 17-month low of $55.60.

● IBM shares recovered from a sharp early drop to end roughly flat.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) slid on Thursday, October 22, 2026, as worries about AI financing weighed on the cloud giant and the wider S&P 500. The stock traded down solidly during the session. No new company-specific news was confirmed.

Market commentary linked the drop to AI-financing and credit concerns around Oracle, pointing to its BBB-minus credit rating and negative free cash flow, as well as the broad selloff in technology shares.

Oracle sells database software and cloud services and has been expanding its cloud infrastructure business to serve AI customers. That expansion requires heavy spending on data centers, which puts the company at the center of a debate that grew louder on Thursday.

The financing question

The debate started with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). On Wednesday evening, Meta narrowed its 2026 capital spending range to $135 billion to $145 billion and reported negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, its first cash outflow in more than a decade, according to market data. The cost of insuring Meta's debt hit a record.

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), which rents out AI computing power, fell to a 17-month low of $55.60. Bernstein kept an Underperform rating and cut its price target to $51 from $74, estimating CoreWeave needs about $85 billion to fund its committed backlog. BofA kept a Buy rating but said the company likely needs to raise $20 billion.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s chief executive said, "The demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital." He also said, "One of the things that we're trying to do is to establish Nvidia's compute as a financeable asset."

IBM's warning on returns

IBM (NYSE:IBM)'s chief executive added another angle. "They are also getting worried if some of the AI spending is completely out of control with no real return," he said. He also said customers are "a lot more cognizant and a lot more aware of what is the true ROI of all of their AI spend."

IBM shares recovered from a sharp early drop to end roughly flat.

Software split from hardware

Not all of tech suffered. Some beaten-down software names rebounded, including Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) and Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY), and cybersecurity stocks gained. Oracle, with its heavy exposure to AI infrastructure spending, traded more like the hardware names.

The S&P 500 fell 93.74 points to 7,663.43, its worst day since July. The Nasdaq Composite lost 694.00 points to 26,008.86, its steepest drop since June 5. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 11.89 points to 52,867.98.

About two of every three S&P 500 stocks still rose, according to market reports. Staples posted their best day since April 2025 and hit a record, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell back below a closely watched threshold for the first time since September 22.

Oracle's Credit Backdrop Joins the AI Debate

Credit markets are now part of the AI story. Investors will keep an eye on the cost of insuring the debt of big AI spenders after Meta's hit a record.

The hyperscaler earnings run continues next week. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) report on October 28 and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) on October 29, offering fresh data on cloud demand and capital spending that bears directly on Oracle's competitive position.

The Federal Reserve also announces its decision on October 28. Lower Treasury yields could ease some financing concerns, but on Thursday they offered little help to AI-linked stocks.