Oracle workforce shrinks by about 21,000 amid AI adoption

[Daniel Nenni]

STORY: Oracle's total workforce declined 13%, or about 21,000 employees, in its fiscal 2026.

It's as the cloud computing giant continued restructuring its business... partly driven by the adoption of AI across its operations. The company had a total workforce of 141,000 as of May 31... down from about 162,000 as of the same period last year. Oracle's annual filing said it spent $1.84 billion in severance payments and other exit costs. It follows multiple reports earlier this year about Oracle cutting thousands of jobs.

The company did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Worries are quickly mounting over job losses due to AI disruption. 196 tech companies laid off more than 119,000 employees so far this year... That's according to a website tracking sector-wide job cuts.

Oracle has in recent months signed massive data-center deals with OpenAI and Meta to compete more forcefully with rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft. However, unlike these tech giants who fund their substantial outlays through large cash flows, Oracle has had to resort to burning cash and issuing debt.

Oracle workforce shrinks by about 21,000 amid AI adoption

STORY: Oracle's total workforce declined 13%, or about 21,000 employees, in its fiscal 2026. It's as the cloud computing giant continued restructuring its business... ...

www.marketscreener.com

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Are the layoffs due the ridiculous AI financial outlays or due to AI itself? I have a feeling CEO's can now say AI and lay-off with impunity.

 

[blueone]

Are the layoffs due the ridiculous AI financial outlays or due to AI itself? I have a feeling CEO's can now say AI and lay-off with impunity.

I think most of these layoffs are due to the fact that a lot of tech companies got rather fat over the past five years, employee population-wise, and AI R&D and deployment expenses have forced a employee expense weight reduction diet. Especially for cloud computing companies. I doubt AI is making any significant number of employees obsolete yet. IMO, it's almost certainly too early in the AI learning and deployment curve to risk significant headcount reductions, except perhaps in "communications" and some administrative roles, due to AI tools.

I do believe CEOs are thinking they can do bigger layoffs without worrying the financial communities and investors. Losing weight can look like getting in shape or undergoing cancer treatment. The early AI job replacement myth let's them superficially hide under the former.

 

[MKWVentures]

I think most of these layoffs are due to the fact that a lot of tech companies got rather fat over the past five years, employee population-wise, and AI R&D and deployment expenses have forced a employee expense weight reduction diet. Especially for cloud computing companies. I doubt AI is making any significant number of employees obsolete yet. IMO, it's almost certainly too early in the AI learning and deployment curve to risk significant headcount reductions, except perhaps in "communications" and some administrative roles, due to AI tools.

I do believe CEOs are thinking they can do bigger layoffs without worrying the financial communities and investors. Losing weight can look like getting in shape or undergoing cancer treatment. The early AI job replacement myth let's them superficially hide under the former.

This is just an excuse. Its like saying "due to overall economy" as a reason that the company is not responsible for.

Investors generally love layoffs if the financials look good.

that said, A Lot of what oracle does is the target of AI automation. I have heard they are buying AI capacity, reducing headcount, telling managers to use the AI capacity purchased and deal with it. Forcing per employee efficiency (for better or worse).

Side note for the "AI is replacing all humans" crowd. Is total employement going up or down in tech??... track employment (clear, multiple independent sources).... not unemployment (Vague, government adjusted sources)

 

[blueone]

This is just an excuse. Its like saying "due to overall economy" as a reason that the company is not responsible for.

Investors generally love layoffs if the financials look good.

This aligns with what I think.

that said, A Lot of what oracle does is the target of AI automation. I have heard they are buying AI capacity, reducing headcount, telling managers to use the AI capacity purchased and deal with it. Forcing per employee efficiency (for better or worse).

What is it you think Oracle does a lot of that is the target of AI automation? A lot of what Oracle does is design and develop high performance system software. AI is not competitive at that. Even for complex enterprise applications software (another big Oracle business group), I'm skeptic AI is as good as skilled humans, but I don't know anyone in development groups like that. So I could be wrong.

Side note for the "AI is replacing all humans" crowd. Is total employement going up or down in tech??... track employment (clear, multiple independent sources).... not unemployment (Vague, government adjusted sources)

Agreed.