April 28 brought the revelation that OpenAI has failed to meet its own internal targets in terms of accumulating new users and increasing its revenue. Furthermore, the same Wall Street Journal article that broke the news revealed that the firm’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is not certain that the company will be able to afford future contracts.
While the report was simultaneously a confirmation of what many observers had suspected for months, OpenAI itself, being a private company, is somewhat insulated from immediate public reaction.
The same cannot be said about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) – a major technology firm that has tied its fate to the success of the artificial intelligence (AI) company to a greater extent than any of its peers.
Dan Ives sets Oracle stock price target for the next 12 months
Indeed, ORCL stock plunged 4.05% on April 28 to $165.96 and then deepened its losses in the subsequent extended session by declining another 1.55% to $163.38.
Notably, while some experts might see the latest developments as confirmation of their long-standing assessments – Ed Zitron has, for example, been maintaining that CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) and Oracle are top contenders for the spot of the first domino in the AI bust – Wedbush’s Dan Ives came out to chastise the sellers.
Specifically, the prominent Wall Street analyst published an X post early on April 28 in which he stated he and his company ‘strongly disagree with the notion that growth is weakening.’
Simultaneously, Ives stated that he considers AI-related and AI-driven tech stocks a ‘Strong Buy,’ with Oracle shares presenting an especially compelling case given investors ‘overreaction’ to the WSJ report.
Thus, the Wedbush analyst effectively doubled down on his previous ‘Buy’ of ORCL stock and the associated $225 12-month price target while also dismissing OpenAI’s misses by highlighting ‘very high demand on both the consumer and enterprise front.’
Elsewhere, Dan Ives has, in recent years, been generally correct in his perpetually bullish outlook regarding technology stocks, though the question of whether this fact is a result of clairvoyant fundamental analysis or merely reading the market is very much open.
Is this the real reason Wedbush might be right in its 2026 Oracle stock price forecast
For example, the legendary ‘Big Short’ trader Michael Burry – despite making multiple bearish bets in recent years – might argue that wagering on a continuous market-wide rally is the only correct move for the time being.
Indeed, the famous short seller estimated that much of the current strength equities have been enjoying – and the increasingly outsized role of technology and semiconductors in particular – is not a result of actual company health or promise, but index and retirement funds engaging in automatic buying.
Simultaneously, Burry argued both that the long bull market might end in 2028 and forecasted that the next crash could be unprecedented in its severity.
Elsewhere, a reading of Ives as fortunate for being bullish in a bull market can be reinforced from his recent remarks following Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) earnings.
While multiple other observers were busy reflecting on dwindling vehicle sales and Elon Musk yet again walking back on previous promises of an imminent technological revolution, the Wedbush analyst declared the EV maker ‘a physical AI stalwart,’ with a $600 price target.
Lastly, whatever the future might prove or disprove, the stock analysis platform TipRanks rates Dan Ives as a top analyst with a 54% success rate – undeniably better than random chance – and an average return of 14.10% on his recommendations, per the data Finbold retrieved on April 29.
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