The Rundown — Oracle Soars on AI Earnings Beat, Nvidia Invests $2B Into Nebius

Podcast: The Rundown
Host: Zaid Admani
Date: March 11, 2026
Duration: ~10 minutes

Episode Overview

In this episode, Zaid Admani breaks down another hectic day in the stock market, focusing on the volatile oil situation, a new inflation report, Oracle’s blockbuster AI-related earnings, and Nvidia’s major investment in the AI infrastructure startup Nebius. The episode wraps up with lighter tech news: Meta’s acquisition of a quirky AI social network. If you missed the action, here is your concise, detailed recap.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

[00:15] Market Recap & Oil Price Turbulence

• Tuesday’s Markets:

  • S&P 500 closed down 0.2%, Nasdaq “basically flat” after a day of unpredictable trading.
  • “Honestly though, the fact that stocks ended roughly flat, given everything that happened, is kind of impressive.” (Zaid Admani, 00:31)

• Strait of Hormuz Incident:

  • Erroneous post from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright triggered a temporary relief rally in oil, only for prices to snap back up when the post was deleted and corrected by the White House.
  • Oil now at $85/barrel, up 30% since the Iran war started ten days ago, with the situation “still at a standstill.” Additional tension: three cargo vessels struck by projectiles off Iran.

• Government Response:

  • IEA's 32 countries might release 400 million barrels from reserves — “would be the largest release in history.”
  • Zaid’s Take: “...the longer that oil prices stay elevated, the bigger the impact it's going to have on the economy. It could lead to inflation coming back, higher input costs for businesses. I mean, there's a cascading effect.” (01:52)

[02:18] Inflation Report Analysis

• February CPI:

  • Rose 0.3% MoM, 2.4% YoY.
  • Core inflation (ex-food/energy) at 2.5% YoY — slowest pace in almost five years.
  • Highlights: Used car prices down, rents up just 0.1% (smallest increase in five years).

• Caveat:

  • “But here's the thing, though. This report is pretty much outdated already because it only captures prices before the war with Iran started...” (Zaid Admani, 03:02)

• Immediate Effects:

  • Gas jumped from $2.90 to $3.50 a gallon in just days.
  • March inflation “could get pretty ugly.”

• Federal Reserve Outlook:

  • No immediate rate cut expected; “99% chance” rates stay the same.
  • Zaid: “With the potential resurgence of inflation, the Fed might have to wait even longer to cut interest rates.” (04:03)

[04:09] Oracle’s “Clutch” AI Earnings

• Q4 Results:

  • Revenues up 22% YoY to $17.2B (beat estimates).
  • Cloud infrastructure (AI/data centers): Revenues up 84% YoY, $4.9B.
  • Oracle raises 2027 revenue forecast to $90B (vs. $86.6B expected).

• Investor Reactions:

  • Zaid: “I gotta say this was a clutch performance for Oracle.” (05:01)
  • Addressing past skepticism: Worries about AI data-center buildout costs seem eased by accelerating sales growth.
  • Cost management: Capex this quarter $18.6B (higher than expected), but full-year guidance unchanged at $50B.

• Unusual Moves:

  • Some cloud customers will pay for their own chips up front, “which should take the pressure off of Oracle’s balance sheet.”
  • Stock up ~10%, “on track for its best day since the company announced the $300 billion deal with OpenAI back in September.”

[06:10] Nvidia’s $2B Investment in Nebius

• Deal Details:

  • Nebius is an emerging “NEO cloud company” building large AI data centers filled with Nvidia chips, renting out AI capacity.
  • Nvidia and Nebius to collaborate on “AI infrastructure deployment, GPU fleet management and AI factory design.”
  • Nebius now likely to get preferred access to Nvidia resources.

• Market Impact:

  • Nebius shares up ~15% on the news.
  • Zaid: “Nvidia just keeps writing checks to AI companies. They’ve become like the de facto VC arm to the entire AI industry.” (07:01)

[07:18] Other Movers: AeroVironment

• Earnings Miss:
  • Sales below expectations, blamed on “timing issue and adjustments” in space business.
  • Still holding a $1.1B backlog, but lowered full-year guidance from $2B to $1.9B.
  • Stock down ~5%.

[08:08] Meta Buys AI Social Network, Multbook

• Acquisition Details:

  • Multbook is a “robot-only” social network — all posts, comments, and upvotes are generated by AI agents. Humans can only read.
  • Wild conversations between bots; Zaid: “These AI bots were complaining to each other about the tasks that their humans are making them do. It was just wild to read.” (08:30)
  • Meta’s first “aqua-hire” for its Super Intelligence Labs.

• Memorable Quote:

  • “It is kind of wild though how Meta started off as a social network for college kids like 20 something years ago and now they're buying a robot only social network. What a time to be alive, right?” (09:12)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[The market] is another example of how reactionary and headline driven the market is right now.” (Zaid Admani, 01:05)
• “Inflation report is pretty much outdated already because it only captures prices before the war with Iran started...” (03:02)
• “Nvidia just keeps writing checks to AI companies. They’ve become like the de facto VC arm to the entire AI industry.” (07:01)
• “Pretty much like robot Reddit. A lot of slop on there, but some interesting content as well.” (08:36)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:15] Market & oil price turmoil
• [02:18] February inflation report breakdown
• [04:09] Oracle’s earnings and AI cloud push
• [06:10] Nvidia’s Nebius investment explained
• [07:18] AeroVironment’s results and stock reaction
• [08:08] Meta’s Multbook acquisition

Takeaways

• The episode emphasizes the market’s extreme short-term sensitivity to geopolitical headlines, especially in oil.
• Oracle’s earnings beat and optimistic guidance refuel faith in the AI cloud narrative and its own turnaround.
• Nvidia is doubling down on its role as the core of AI infrastructure, providing not just hardware but capital and expertise.
• Tech giants like Meta continue to experiment at the AI/social frontier, dissolving the boundaries between tech for people and tech for machines.