Oracle’s stock is rising, but another classic Silicon Valley company is struggling

One of Silicon Valley’s original powerhouses is back in full swing. Oracle’s shares are up 55% this year, trailing only Nvidia’s nearly 150% gain in the period. The stock jumped 11% Tuesday — the first time in more than two years that the stock has risen by double digits in a single day — after Oracle beat earnings expectations, showing how quickly the company has grown its cloud business while also building partnerships with major industry players.

The AI ​​boom hasn’t been so kind to other traditional tech names so far. Chief among them is Intel, whose “breathtaking decline,” as Bloomberg’s Ian King put it, contrasts sharply with Oracle’s revival. Once the world’s largest chipmaker, Intel announced it would lay off 15,000 workers, or about 15% of its workforce, as revenues continued to decline and its own outlook remained unclear.

Disappointing financial results released in early August sent the stock plummeting. The stock is now down about 60% year to date.

Check out this interactive chart on Fortune.com

At first glance, Intel seems well-positioned to benefit from the AI ​​boom, especially as the Biden administration seeks to rebuild the U.S. chip industry.

But the company has lagged behind competitors like Nvidia in areas like chip design. The same is true of its so-called foundry business, where Taiwanese TSMC is the semiconductor maker of choice. Meanwhile, Intel’s core business, building PC chips, is also under pressure, noted Angelo Zino, a technical analyst and senior vice president at CFRA Research.

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

Oracle in action

It’s hard to see a path forward for one of America’s early tech icons. But that’s not the case for Oracle, another legacy that’s stirred new excitement among investors.

The company reported revenue of $13.3 billion for the quarter, up 8% from a year ago, but many analysts expect that growth to accelerate into double digits, thanks in large part to its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) business, which grew 45%.

While the company’s share of the cloud services market still lags far behind the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services, Oracle now boasts valuable partnerships with all three. The AWS deal announced Monday, which gives customers full access to Oracle’s market-leading database on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, completes the triad.

The news surprised few on Wall Street. Still, the strong earnings data prompted some mutual funds that had been underweighting the stock to buy, said Ted Mortonson, managing director and technology strategist at Baird.

“You either love (founder and CTO) Larry Ellison and (CEO) Safra Catz or you don’t,” he said. “You have a story, or you believe it or you don’t. Well, you’ve given up, and you better believe them in this cycle.”

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

This story was originally published on Fortune.com