By Lee Samaha
Publication Date: 2026-04-12 00:45:00
The market is, quite understandably, focused on artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscalers to determine whether an AI bubble is brewing. These concerns are further reinforced by the share price performance of the leading hyperscaler companies in 2026 (see chart).
The two that stand out the most are oracle (ORCL +0.17%) And alphabet (GOOG 0.20%) (GOOGL 0.39%)and a closer look at what bond markets are pricing in their default risk says a lot about the two companies’ prospects and the market’s fears of an AI bubble.
Stock markets and hyperscalers
The underperformance of Oracle and Microsoft (MSFT 0.60%) in 2026 can be clearly seen in the graphic. The most likely reason is that both have significant exposure to OpenAI. Oracle and OpenAI have inked a massive cloud computing deal worth $300 billion, expanding the former AI data center infrastructure to sell computing services to OpenAI.
Meanwhile, Microsoft management confirmed in its latest earnings release that 45% of remaining…