Oracle shares are rising, but another classic Silicon Valley firm is struggling

One of Silicon Valley’s original powerhouses is truly back. Oracle shares are up 55% this year, trailing only Nvidia’s nearly 150% rise over that period. Shares rose 11% on Tuesday — the first time in more than two years the stock has risen by double digits in a single day — after Oracle beat earnings expectations, highlighting how the company has rapidly grown its cloud business , while simultaneously collaborating with major industry players.

The AI ​​boom hasn’t been as kind to other legacy tech names so far. Chief among them is Intel, whose “staggering fall from grace,” as Bloomberg’s Ian King put it, stands in stark contrast to Oracle’s revitalization. Once the world’s largest chip maker, Intel has announced it will cut 15,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of its workforce, as revenue continues to decline and its own forecasts remain weak.

The disappointing earnings release at the start of August caused a drop in share prices, with the stock now down around 60% year to date.

View this interactive chart on Fortune.com

On the face of it, it seems like Intel should have been well-positioned to take advantage of the AI ​​boom, especially as the Biden administration sought to rebuild the U.S. chip industry.

However, the company has been unable to keep up with competitors such as Nvidia in areas such as chip design. The same is true for the so-called foundry business, where Taiwan’s TSMC is the semiconductor manufacturer of choice. At the same time, Intel’s core business of building PC chips is also under pressure, noted Angelo Zino, technology analyst and senior vice president at CFRA Research.

“Intel is essentially in a lose-lose situation,” he said.

Oracle on the roll

It’s hard to see a way forward for one of America’s first technological icons. That’s not the case, however, at Oracle, another legacy name that has sparked excitement among investors.

The company reported revenue of $13.3 billion for the quarter, up 8 percent from last year, but several analysts expect that growth to accelerate to double digits. This is largely due to its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) business, which grew by 45%.

While the company’s cloud market share lags far behind the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services, Oracle now boasts valuable partnerships with all three. The deal with AWS announced Monday, which allows customers to fully access the market-leading Oracle database within Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, completed the trifecta.

That news surprised few on Wall Street. However, the strong earnings release forced some mutual funds that were underweight the stock to buy, said Ted Mortonson, managing director and technology strategist at Baird.

The story continues

“You either love (founder and chief technology officer) Larry Ellison and (CEO) Safra Catz, or you don’t,” he said. “You either have history or you believe it, or you don’t. Well, you’ve capitulated that you better believe them in this cycle.”

Unfortunately, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is not in the same boat.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com