Oracle Cuts Thousands Of Jobs Amid Intensified AI Investment Push

The company's stock has fallen by approximately 25 percent this year.

Software giant Oracle has begun laying off thousands of employees worldwide as it accelerates spending on AI infrastructure.

CNBC says it verified the layoffs through two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

The company, which employed around 162,000 people as of May 2025, has not yet made a formal public announcement. However, affected workers across the United States, India and other regions reported receiving termination notices at roughly the same time, suggesting a coordinated global action.

Workers say the job cuts were communicated through a brief, standardized email sent under the name "Oracle Leadership", with no prior warning from managers or human resources.

The message informed recipients that their roles had been eliminated following a review of business needs, and that the day the email was received would be their final working day.

Details of severance packages were to be provided after employees completed termination paperwork via DocuSign. Many reported losing access to internal systems almost immediately after receiving the notice.

Screenshots of the email circulated widely on online forums, including Reddit and the professional platform Blind, where employees described the experience as abrupt and impersonal.

Accounts shared online indicate that the cuts were widespread, with some divisions experiencing particularly deep reductions.

Employees in the Revenue and Health Sciences (RHS) and SaaS and Virtual Operations Services (SVOS) units reported workforce reductions of around 30% or more.

In some cases, entire teams were significantly downsized in a single move, including managerial roles.

At NetSuite's India Development Centre, layoffs reportedly affected staff across multiple levels, including project managers and senior engineers.

Some employees said they would formally remain on payroll until early April, followed by a period of "garden leave." Others confirmed that previously vested stock would remain accessible.

Financial Strain Amid AI Expansion

The layoffs come against a backdrop of growing investor concern over Oracle's financial strategy.

The company's stock has fallen by approximately 25 percent this year, underperforming many of its large technology peers.

Analysts have pointed to heavy borrowing and declining cash flow as key factors behind the downturn.

Oracle has been investing heavily in infrastructure to support AI workloads, competing with larger cloud providers such as Amazon.

In January, it announced plans to raise $50 billion through debt and equity to fund expansion.

Despite these pressures, executives have maintained that demand for AI infrastructure remains strong.

"Demand for AI infrastructure, both GPU and CPU, continues to exceed supply," said senior executive Clay Magouyrk during a recent earnings call, citing a substantial backlog of contracted revenue.

That backlog, known as remaining performance obligations, has surged in recent months, boosted in part by a multi-year agreement with OpenAI reportedly worth more than $300 billion.

Cost-Cutting Seen As Strategic Shift

Analysts suggest the layoffs may form part of a broader effort to improve cash flow while sustaining large-scale AI investments.

A note from TD Cowen earlier this year estimated that reducing the workforce by between 20,000 and 30,000 employees could generate up to $10 billion in additional free cash flow.

Oracle is not the only company cutting jobs to fund increased investment in AI infrastructure.

Microsoft trimmed its workforce by about 15,000 employees last year as spending on AI software and datacenters surged.

In February, payments firm Block co-founded by Jack Dorsey, announced plans to reduce nearly half of its staff, pointing to efficiency gains driven by AI.

Meta is also reportedly considering sweeping layoffs that could affect 20 percent or more of its workforce.

This article originally appeared on MES Computing’s sister site Computing.