Nine American companies are currently valued at $1 trillion or more, but another could soon join them.
Oracle operates some of the world's fastest and most cost-efficient data centers for processing artificial intelligence workloads.
Oracle's order backlog soared by 359% during the recent quarter, which could pave the way for a $1 trillion valuation as soon as next year.
The U.S. is currently home to nine companies with market capitalizations of $1 trillion or more:
One more company is knocking on the door of that exclusive club. Following a whopping 78% gain in its stock price this year, Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) is now valued at $840 billion, and the company's recent quarterly report suggests even more upside might be on the way.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
Here's how Oracle could cross the $1 trillion milestone as soon as 2026.
Image source: Getty Images.
Most artificial intelligence (AI) development happens inside large data centers that are filled with thousands of chips connected by advanced networking equipment. Most businesses can't afford to build this infrastructure in-house, so they rent it from cloud providers like Oracle for a fraction of the cost.
Oracle's cloud data centers are among the fastest and most affordable in the industry. They use a proprietary random direct memory access (RDMA) networking technology, which allows data to move between chips and devices more efficiently than traditional Ethernet networks. Since most AI developers rent computing capacity by the minute, even a minor increase in processing speed can translate to substantial cost savings over the long term.
Oracle's data centers also offer immense scale, allowing developers to use up to 131,072 of the latest graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, providing enough computing power for even the largest AI workloads.
As a result, some of the world's top AI companies are lining up to use Oracle's infrastructure, including ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Facebook parent Meta Platforms, and Elon Musk's xAI.
Oracle generated $14.9 billion in revenue during its fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended Aug. 31), which was a 12% increase from the year-ago period. But the real growth story was beneath the surface of the headline number, because revenue from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) segment soared by 55% to $3.3 billion.
OCI could be growing even faster right now, but Oracle simply can't build data centers fast enough to meet the astronomical amount of demand. In fact, during Q1, the company's remaining performance obligations (RPO) soared by an eye-popping 359% to a record high of $455 billion. RPO reflects the value of signed contracts with customers for services which haven't been delivered yet, so it's similar to an order backlog.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a recent $300 billion deal with OpenAI was responsible for the majority of the new RPO. This is great news at face value, but it does create concentration risk for Oracle -- OpenAI is a startup that currently relies on investors for funding, so if it doesn't become profitable soon, there is a chance it won't meet its obligation to spend the entire $300 billion.
Nevertheless, Oracle plans to rapidly build more data center capacity. During a conference call with investors discussing the company's Q1 results, CEO Safra Catz said capital expenditures (capex) could top $35 billion during fiscal 2026. That was up from her previous guidance of $25 billion just three months earlier.
Oracle isn't cheap right now. The company has generated $4.32 in trailing 12-month earnings per share over the last four quarters on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, placing its stock at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 68.7.
That is a steep premium to the Nasdaq-100 index, which is trading at a P/E ratio of 32 as I write this, suggesting Oracle stock is far more expensive than its big-tech peers. However, I haven't seen any other tech giant report a 359% increase in order backlog recently, and since the stock market is a forward-looking machine, it's no surprise investors are pricing in some of Oracle's future potential growth right now.
According to Yahoo! Finance, Wall Street analysts are already forecasting accelerated revenue and earnings growth for the company in fiscal 2027 (which starts in June 2026) reflecting a potential tailwind from that enormous order backlog.
If that plays out as expected, I think Oracle stock could muster the 19% gain it needs to lift the company's market capitalization from $840 billion to $1 trillion during calendar year 2026. However, a growing order backlog will be key -- if it begins to shrink, investors might feel less confident paying a premium valuation for the stock. That is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Before you buy stock in Oracle, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Oracle wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $661,694!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,082,963!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,067% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 190% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of September 22, 2025
Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.