(Reuters) - Oracle said on Tuesday it expects revenue in its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business to grow 77% this year, from earlier projections of 70%, boosted by growing cloud demand and sending its shares up 20% after the bell.

Oracle also said it had signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in the first quarter, helping a 12% increase in revenue to $14.93 billion.

"Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars," said CEO Safra Catz.

Remaining performance obligations, or RPO, the most popular measure of booked revenue, jumped 359% to $455 billion in the first quarter ended August 31.

The company is actively investing in building out data centers to support growth in its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure solution. Analysts say OCI is growing faster than its hyperscaler peers, albeit off a smaller base, and potentially taking market share from peers.