Meta Platforms (META +0.29%) is the eighth-largest publicly traded company in the world with a market capitalization of $1.6 trillion, reaching this position thanks to the healthy growth in its advertising business.
Meta has been using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to encourage users of its social media properties to spend more time on its apps. More importantly, the Magnificent Seven company has been offering AI to brands and advertisers to help them improve audience targeting across its family of applications, driving greater returns on their advertising dollars.
Oracle (ORCL 0.73%), on the other hand, has traditionally been known for its database management software. However, its cloud computing business has received a major boost due to AI. What's more, Oracle is poised to witness a substantial acceleration in growth in the next three years, primarily due to the robust demand for the cloud computing capacity that it is building, as well as its remarkable backlog.
In fact, it won't be surprising to see Oracle overtaking Meta's market cap by 2028, even though the former is well behind the social media giant with a $448 billion market cap. Let's look at the reasons why this possibility cannot be ruled out.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Oracle's growth rate is set to pick up impressively
Both Oracle and Meta Platforms are benefiting from AI adoption in different niches. Meta has been integrating AI into its social media apps, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, to enhance user engagement and boost its advertising business. The company also offers chatbots and foundational models that developers can use to build apps, software solutions, and AI tools.
NYSE: ORCL
Key Data Points
It is now focused on developing personal superintelligence, which Meta says will be tailor-made for individuals, enabling it to understand their preferences, interact with the environment, and achieve their goals. However, Meta will need computing power from AI data centers to run its AI workloads. That's why Meta has been investing aggressively in building data centers.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company pointed out in November 2025 that it will be investing more than $600 billion in the U.S. in the next three years to build AI infrastructure. It is worth noting that Meta has been turning to companies such as Oracle to gain access to AI computing capacity. Oracle was reportedly in talks to sign a $20 billion AI cloud computing deal with Meta last year.
Meta, however, isn't the only AI player looking for cloud computing capacity. The huge contractual backlogs that major tech giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are sitting on are prompting them to spend more to secure access to additional data center capacity. Also, pure-play AI companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI data centers.
Oracle is the beneficiary of all this incredible spending that's going on. This is evident from the company's remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $553 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (which ended on Feb. 28). The metric, which refers to the total value of Oracle's contracts that are yet to be fulfilled, shot up by a stunning 325% from the year-ago period.
The important thing to note is that Oracle has been converting that sizable backlog into revenue. Though the company's overall revenue increased by 22% year over year in the previous quarter to $17.2 billion, its cloud revenue jumped by 44% to $8.9 billion. The sizable backlog suggests that the cloud business is on track to keep growing at a terrific pace and help accelerate Oracle's growth.
Not surprisingly, Oracle is expecting a big improvement in its revenue growth from the current fiscal year's projected 17% growth to $67 billion.
ORCL Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts.
According to the chart above, Oracle's top line could jump by 32% in the next fiscal year, followed by a stronger increase of 46% in fiscal 2028. Oracle management pointed out in October 2025 that it sees fiscal 2029 revenue at $185 billion, indicating that its accelerating revenue growth is here to stay.
Meta's relatively slower growth could help Oracle become the bigger company
Oracle operates in a market where demand significantly outpaces supply, which explains why it has been receiving large contracts from companies looking to run AI workloads and why it has a massive revenue backlog. Meta Platforms, meanwhile, is building consumer-facing AI products. Of course, there is strong demand for AI tools in areas such as advertising, but the data center market is growing at a much faster pace.
This explains why Meta's growth isn't going to keep up with Oracle's in the next three years.
META Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts.
If Meta trades at 7.8 times sales at the end of 2028, in line with the U.S. tech sector's average sales multiple, it will have a market cap of $2.7 trillion. A similar multiple could take Oracle's market cap to $1.44 trillion after three years (based on its fiscal 2029 revenue estimate of $185 billion). Oracle, however, would likely trade at a premium after three years of faster growth. Additionally, there is a chance it will clock higher-than-expected revenue growth due to its tremendous backlog.
Assuming it trades at 15 times sales due to its market-beating growth rate, Oracle's market cap would be almost $2.8 trillion in three years. So, Oracle stock isn't just poised to beat Meta's returns in the next three years; it has the potential to become a more valuable AI company over this period.
