Tech giant Oracle launched a new round of layoffs today as the company seeks to offset massive artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. Oracle informed affected workers via email early this morning.
Business Insider reported last month that Oracle was looking to reduce payroll after borrowing billions to build data centers and buy chips.
Fast Company has reached out to Oracle for comment.
The database pioneer has bet big on AI, saying it anticipates an eye-popping $90 billion to $95 billion in capital expenditures this year. However, despite strong revenue growth, it has accumulated $125 billion in debt to fund the expansion and has a lower credit rating than its hyperscaler competitors, according to CNBC.
To shore up its financial position, Oracle has been cutting workers: Its global head count fell by about 21,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce, during the fiscal year that ended on May 31.
Since then, it has revised the cost of its “2026 Restructuring Plan” upward by $700 million to $2.8 billion, largely to account for severance packages.
These cuts reflect a new way AI has disrupted the labor market, particularly in the tech sector. Along with threatening to replace human labor, AI is leading some companies to free up cash for AI investments by cutting payroll.
In March, for example, global software firm Altassian announced roughly 1,600 layoffs, or 10% of its workforce, in a move that chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes said was necessary to “self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales.”
Software company Autodesk also cut about 1,000 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, in January. While the CEO Andrew Anagnost said the primary reason was a go-to-market restructuring, he also said Autodesk was making targeted adjustments while “reinvesting in and scaling” AI, platform, and industry cloud capabilities.
The trade-off between investing in AI and investing in workers is becoming increasingly visible to employees themselves, particularly as companies announce layoffs alongside massive spending commitments.
“Today I learned that many former colleagues at my previous employer (Oracle) were part of another round of massive layoffs,” one former Oracle engineer posted on LinkedIn today. “The battle to build AI centers has lots of casualties.”
