Oracle was ordered by a California jury to pay $3 billion after finding that billionaire Larry Ellison and his company violated a contract to support software for Hewlett-Packard 's Itanium chip. Oracle said it would appeal the verdict.

Oracle decided to stop developing software for use with HP's Itanium-based servers in 2011, saying that the chips were nearing the end of their life and that Intel - the chips' maker - was shifting its focus to its x86 microprocessor.

However, HP said it had an agreement with Oracle that support for Itanium would continue, without which the equipment using the chip would become obsolete.

In 2012, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that there had been a contract. The jury on Thursday decided damages.

The Itanium chip, developed in collaboration between HP and Intel in 2001, was once touted as architecture that would be pervasive in the computer industry. The processor failed to win industry-wide adoption, causing both HP and Intel to reduce their investment in it.