Shares of cloud computing platform DigitalOcean ( NYSE:DOCN ) rose 3.9% in the morning session after the company introduced its Gradient™ AI Agent Development Kit, a new tool aimed at helping software developers build and deploy production-ready AI agents.
The product is designed to address a common challenge for developers: turning an AI prototype into a reliable and testable application. The kit is a code-first software development kit that allows developers to create and test complex agent workflows within their existing work environments. The announcement positioned DigitalOcean to better serve the growing market for AI development tools by simplifying a key part of the creation process.
After the initial hit, shares cooled to $45.46, up 3.6% from the previous close.
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DigitalOcean stock is extremely volatile, having seen 40 moves of more than 5% in the past year. In that context, today’s move indicates that the market sees this news as meaningful, but not as something that would fundamentally change its perception of the company.
The previous big move we wrote about was three days ago, when the share price fell 3.6% on news that investors were becoming increasingly concerned that the billions of dollars invested in artificial intelligence may not yield sufficient returns.
This sentiment fueled fears of a potential “AI bubble,” leading to a significant downturn in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index. The sell-off intensified after chipmaker Broadcom warned that higher sales of AI systems could lead to lower profit margins, sending its shares tumbling.
Then the broader market wondered whether the massive spending on chips and data centers would deliver a valuable return on investment. This uncertainty caused a market recalibration, with investors moving capital from more speculative technology stocks to more stable assets.
DigitalOcean is up 32.7% since the start of the year, but at $45.46 per share it is still trading 12% below its 52-week high of $51.67 set in November 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of DigitalOcean stock at its IPO in March 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $1,070.
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