Oracle has begun another round of layoffs, with an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 employees affected, according to reports. The cuts, which took effect on September 14, 2026, have not been officially confirmed by the company, which has declined to comment on the scale or scope of the reductions.
The September cuts are not an isolated event. Between May 2025 and May 2026, Oracle’s global workforce fell from 162,000 to 141,000 employees, a net reduction of approximately 21,000 people, representing roughly 13% of its total headcount. Severance costs during the same period climbed from $374 million to $1.84 billion, and the company’s 2026 Restructuring Plan carries total anticipated charges of as much as $2.8 billion.
What distinguishes Oracle’s restructuring from typical corporate downsizing is the company’s own explanation for it.
In its fiscal 2026 annual filing, the company stated that “the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.” Few companies at Oracle’s scale have attributed workforce reductions to AI adoption so directly in a regulatory filing.
Oracle workforce shrinking as infrastructure spending surges
The layoffs are happening alongside one of the most aggressive infrastructure investment programmes in Oracle’s history. The company spent $55.7 billion on capital expenditure in fiscal 2026, more than double the $21.2 billion it spent the year before, as it built out data centre capacity for cloud customers including Nvidia, OpenAI, Meta, AMD, and xAI. That spending outpaced Oracle’s cash generation by a significant margin, producing negative $23.7 billion in free cash flow. The company raised $43 billion in debt and $5 billion in equity to fund the gap.
For fiscal 2027, the company has projected capital expenditure of between $90 billion and $95 billion. Cloud infrastructure revenue grew 77% in fiscal 2026, and revenue backlog rose 26% to $664 billion, indicating that demand for its services continues to grow even as its workforce contracts.
Reports from August 2026 indicated that managers across the company had been asked to submit employee lists for review before September 1, with some teams facing double-digit percentage reductions. September 14 and September 15 were discussed internally as likely dates for further cuts. The September 14 round proceeded without public confirmation from Oracle. The company has not indicated whether additional reductions are planned.
Read also: Oracle’s workforce shrinks by 21,000 as AI reshapes operations
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